A WELL-CAST GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF A MULTI-ARMED BODHISATTVA

17TH/18TH CENTURY

细节

A WELL-CAST GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF A MULTI-ARMED BODHISATTVA
17th/18th Century
The Tantric figure standing with eight pairs of arms arrayed around the upper body, the hands held in various graceful gestures, most cast with an eye and many pierced for the insertion of an attribute (all but the "book of wisdom" now missing), wearing a foliate necklace applied at the neck over a "jeweled" and beaded pectoral which matches the arm bands, bracelets and further pendent chains embellishing the shawl draped over the upper back and those falling in garlands around the graceful folds of the flaring, layered skirt, all of the garments with delicately carved foliate and diaper borders, the peaceful expression of the face and the hair worn in knotted plaits and an elaborate topknot crisply cast and well defined
18¼in. (46.4cm.) high, wood stand

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See illustration of two views

拍品专文

The style of the garments, as well as the graceful flare of the hem of the skirt and the slight sway of the body may be based on early Ming prototypes, such as the gilt-bronze multi-armed bodhisattva of similar height (48cm.) dated to the Ming dynasty in the Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich, included in the exhibition, Chinesische Kunst, Berlin, January 12 - April 2, 1929, Catalogue, no. 666. Compare, also, a giltwood figure of Qing dynasty date (1750-1800), which has a thicker but similarly swayed body, similar thin multiple arms, the same position of the primary hands, as well as a very similar topknot, in the T.T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and illustrated by Richard Cook, "A Qing Dynasty Multi-armed Bodhisattva; Surface Decoration, Construction and Hidden Offerings", Orientations, July 1991, pp. 41-43