A FINE AND RARE WOOD SEATED FIGURE OF GUANYIN

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Details

A FINE AND RARE WOOD SEATED FIGURE OF GUANYIN
SONG DYNASTY, CIRCA 12TH CENTURY

The Bodhisattva seated at ease on an animal skin pooling in irregular folds over a waisted rockwork base, wearing naturalistically flowing robes open at the chest to expose radiating necklaces linked with foliate medallions, the elaborately dressed hair set with a lotus diadem accommodating a small seated figure of Amitabha Buddha, extensive traces of gilt lacquer and some blue, red, green and white gesso polychrome decoration remaining, some old damages--23 1/8in. (59cm.) high

Provenance

C. T. Loo & Cie., Paris, 1950

Lot Essay

Compare with the St. Louis Art Museum example, Handbook, 1975, p. 285, for a Guanyin seated at ease, probably originally on a base; the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, example, Sickman and Soper, The Art and Architecture of China, Penguin, 1956, illustrated as pl. 79; the Museum van Aziatische Kunst, Amsterdam, wood Guanyin dated to the 12th century and catalogued as from Shaanxi; Fontein and Hempel, Propylaen Kunst Geschichte, Berlin, 1968, pl. 115; and Zimmer, The Art of Indian Asia, 1955, vol. 2, no. 614, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Guanyin

Formerly sold in these rooms June 5, 1986, lot 119