WESTERN WEI DYNASTY (AD 535-556)

Details

A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA
WESTERN WEI DYNASTY (AD 535-556)
The figure is heavily cast and shown standing on a lotus base, the right hand holding a section of the long, looped necklace gathered by a disk below the waist of the layered robes, and the left hand holding the scarf draped over the left arm, while the ends of the robes and the scarves flare out to the sides. The face is cast with a gentle expression, and is framed by the ribbons that trail from the crown decorated with three globular 'jewels'. Two pierced attachment tabs project from near the edge of the hollow back on the figure's proper right side.
4 3/8 in. (11.2 cm.) high

Provenance

Mayuyama & Co., Tokyo, prior to 1983.

Literature

Osaka City Museum, Art of the Six Dynasties, Osaka, 1975, p. 34, no. 3-180.
Osaka City Museum, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Osaka, 1984, p. 61, no. 89.
Kuboso Art Museum, Gilt Bronze Buddhas from the Six Dynasties period, Osaka, 1991, p. 92, no. 92.
Museum Yamato Bunkakan, Chinese Gilt Bronze Buddhist Figures, Nara, 2 October - 8 November, 1992, p. 70, no. 38.
Matsubara Saburo, Chugoku Chokokushi ron (The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture), Tokyo, vol. 1, 1995, pl. 260b.

Exhibited

Osaka, Osaka City Museum, Art of the Six Dynasties, 10 October - 9 November, 1975, no. 3-180.
Osaka, Osaka City Museum, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Osaka, 6 October - 11 November, 1984, no. 89.
Osaka, Kuboso Art Museum, Gilt Bronze Buddhas from the Six Dynasties period, 1991, no. 92.
Nara, Museum Yamato Bunkakan, Chinese Gilt Bronze Buddhist Figures, 2 October - 8 November 1992, no. 78.

Lot Essay

This figure of a bodhisattva would have been part of a large, complex Buddhist votive group, probably flanking a central figure of Buddha, as the two attachment tabs are positioned near one edge of the back. The treatment of the robes and scarves, which flare outward in an animated fashion from the sides, is one of the distinctive styles seen during the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei and Western Wei periods. A similar treatment of the robes, with flaring, wing-tipped drapery, can be seen on the figure of a gilt-bronze luohan (14.6 cm. high) in the Fogg Museum, Cambridge, illustrated by H. Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Vermont/Tokyo, 1967, frontispiece, where it is dated Northern Wei dynasty. This depiction of the robes and scarves creates an abstract, linear pattern that obscures the body. The current figure is very similar to another bodhisattva figure which forms the center of a complex votive group in the Art Institute of Chicago, illustrated by Matsubara Saburo in Chugoku Bukkyo Chokokushi ron (The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture),Tokyo, 1995, vol. 1, pl. 296, where it is dated Western Wei (AD 535-556), as it is by Jin Shen in Zhongguo lida jinian foxiang tudian (Illustrated Chinese Buddha Images through the Ages), Beijing, 1995, p. 216, no. 158. Not only are the robes, scarves and necklace similar, but also the shape and features of the face and the crown with trailing ribbons. Like the current figure, the bodhisattva in the published group stands on a lotus base, but is surrounded by subsidiary figures, all raised on a stand with open sides that is inscribed with a dedicatory inscription by Kang Sheng dated to AD 539.

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