A LARGE WOOD SEATED FIGURE OF GUANYIN, AVALOKITESVARA

Details
A LARGE WOOD SEATED FIGURE OF GUANYIN, AVALOKITESVARA
YUAN/EARLY MING DYNASTY

Shown with right hand raised and left hand held above the lap, wearing an ornate, beaded necklace and loose robes falling in crisp, graceful folds around the body, the full, rounded face well carved with small, curved mouth and hooded eyes framed by the line of the hair swept up under the five-pointed, foliate crown centered by the figure of Amitabha Buddha, with an aperture in the back, losses, cracks--57 3/4in. (147cm.) high

Lot Essay

Although the legs of this figure are missing, they would appear to have be in a pendent position

The manner in which the robes, the beaded necklace and the foliate crown are carved is similar to that of a wood figure of Puxian, dated Yuan/Early Ming, in the Avery Brundage Collection, The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, illustrated by d'Argencé, Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture, Japan, 1974, no. 149. Compare, also, the far more slender figure of Guanyin in the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated to the Song Dynasty, which wears very similar robes and beaded necklace, a five-part, foliate crown and which shares the same, stiff, upright posture and also has its legs in a pendent position. From the position of the arms, it appears that the now missing hands might have been similarly held to those of the figure being offere. See Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture (II), Taiwan, 1990, p. 161, no. 152