A RARE SOAPSTONE FIGURE OF A MULTI-ARMED BODHISATTVA

17TH/18TH CENTURY

細節

A RARE SOAPSTONE FIGURE OF A MULTI-ARMED BODHISATTVA
17TH/18TH CENTURY
Seated in padmasana with the primary right hand raised in amidamudra while the primary left hand holds an amphora, the raised secondary right hand holding a trident, and the raised secondary left touching the ribbon that flutters from the tripartite crown surmounted by a double-gourd ornament and hung in back with a draped scarf, the figure wearing a bead necklace, a shawl swirling around the shoulders and around the arms and a dhoti secured just below the waist which falls in folds below the crossed legs, the creamy ivory-colored stone altered in areas to an opaque buff color
7¾ in. (19.7 cm.) high

拍品專文

Soapstone figures of Buddhist subjects appear to be rare. A tianhuang figure of a standing bodhisattva holding an amphora, and wearing a double-strand bead necklace as well as a crown and with similar face and long draped scarf in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji; diaosu bian-6-Yuan Ming Qing diaosu, Beijing, 1988, p. 143, pl. 154.

The inspiration for this rare soapstone figure may have been contemporaneous gilt-bronzes. The swirling shawl, the indication of breasts, the ribbons trailing from the crown are features seen in a gilt-bronze four-armed figure of Manjusri, dated to the Kangxi period, illustrated in the catalogue for the exhibition, Hung Shih Chang and Jessica P.P. Hsu (eds.), Buddhist Art from Rehol, The Chang Foundation and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 1999, no. 19.