Lot Essay
This figure is very similar to one in the Shanghai Museum, also dated to the Jin dynasty, and illustrated in Ancient Chinese Sculpture Gallery: The Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 1996, no. 72. The pose, the robust body, the shape of the face and the facial details, the tiara with elements of scrolls rising above a ruyi-shaped centerpiece, the style of the sash tied in a bow around the torso and the ridged edge of the scarf draped over the shoulders framing the neck are all extremely similar. They are also related to the figure of a standing Guanyin in the Royal Ontario Museum dated to A.D. 1195, illustrated in Homage to Heaven, Homage to Earth, Chinese Treasures of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1992, col. pl. 104. The similarities in the carving of these three figures suggests a similar date for all three, and also suggests that they were all carved in the same workshop, if not by the same hand.
Compare, also, the torso of a very similar bodhisattva dated at the time to the Song dynasty and illustrated by A. Priest, Chinese Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1944. Here, again, one sees the same face, body shape, tied scarf and treatment of tiara and hair.
Another related figure of a standing bodhisattva with more elaborate treatment of the drapery and scarves in the Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, is illustrated by J. Larson and R. Kerr, Guanyin, A Masterpiece Revealed, London, 1985, fig. 1. This book documents the conservation and analysis of a painted wood Guanyin seated in rajalilasana and of Jin date in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which shares a striking similarity of color scheme, especially that of the body after conservation, as seen in figs. 82-86. As with the present figure the flesh areas have a reddish-gold burnished appearance.
All of the figures cited, as well as the present figure, exhibit a robust vitality and elegance of form reflective of the strength and popularity of Buddhism in China at the time.
Compare, also, the torso of a very similar bodhisattva dated at the time to the Song dynasty and illustrated by A. Priest, Chinese Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1944. Here, again, one sees the same face, body shape, tied scarf and treatment of tiara and hair.
Another related figure of a standing bodhisattva with more elaborate treatment of the drapery and scarves in the Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, is illustrated by J. Larson and R. Kerr, Guanyin, A Masterpiece Revealed, London, 1985, fig. 1. This book documents the conservation and analysis of a painted wood Guanyin seated in rajalilasana and of Jin date in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which shares a striking similarity of color scheme, especially that of the body after conservation, as seen in figs. 82-86. As with the present figure the flesh areas have a reddish-gold burnished appearance.
All of the figures cited, as well as the present figure, exhibit a robust vitality and elegance of form reflective of the strength and popularity of Buddhism in China at the time.