LIAO DYNASTY, 10TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF A DANCING BODHISATTVA
LIAO DYNASTY, 10TH CENTURY
Finely cast standing on lotus blossoms with body gracefully swayed to the right and right arm raised in the movement of a dance as the left hand holds the end of one of the long swirling scarves while the sash-tied skirt flares outwards in a curve, also wearing a foliate necklace and a jewel and flower-bedecked arching headdress tied with long ribbons that trail down the back, the face with delicate features and the hair finely incised
4½ in. (11.5 cm.) high, gilt-metal square base

Literature

S. Matsubara, Chuugoku bukkyo chokokushi ron (The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture), vol. 3, Tang, Five Dynasties, Sung and Taoist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1995, fig. 824a,b.

Lot Essay

This extremely rare and finely detailed dancing bodhisattva probably served as an attendant figure flanking a central image of a Buddha on an elaborate shrine, such as the Tang dynasty example illustrated by H. Trubner et. al., Asiatic Art in the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1973, p. 154, no. 101. Small-scale gilt-bronze bodhisattva figures of this period are typically shown in a more frontal, less animated posture, and very rarely in the act of dancing. Compare the Tang dynasty gilt-bronze figure of a dancing bodhisattva illustrated by S. Matsubara, Chogoku bukkyo chokokushi ron (The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture), vol. 3, Tang, Five Dynasties, Sung and Taoism Sculpture, Tokyo, 1995, fig. 669b.

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