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Lot Essay
This unusual figure appears to belong to a group of Buddhist votive figures produced in Zhejiang during the Wuyue kingdom (AD 907-978), four of which are illustrated in Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Statues in Overseas Collections, vol. 6, Beijing, 2005, pls. 1234-37: one in the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, Japan (pl. 1234); two in the Harvard University Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, (pls. 1235 and 1236); and one in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, pl. 1237; all dated to the 10th century. Of these four, the figure in the Seikado Bunko Art Museum represents Buddha, while the other three represent bodhisattvas. All of these figures including the current figure of Buddha have similar, distinctive facial features, a very similar openwork aureole, and are seated on a flat circular disk. In the case of the published figures, this circular disk is fitted into a lotus, which appears to be of two types: one type has the appearance of a large, rounded flower head composed of multiple, narrow, convex petals attached to a central structure (Seikado Bunko Art Museum and The Metropolitan Art Museum figures); the other two are low and cast with more standard lotus petals and are raised on a waisted pedestal (Harvard University Museum figures). These lotus-form sections are, in turn, raised on a censer-like platform of barbed petal outline with a pierced top and six small legs which rest on top of a tiered stand.
The bodhisattva in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 1) is also illustrated by D. Leidy and D. Strahan in Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, p. 110-12, no. 22, where the authors ascribe the figure to Zhejiang province, which during the 10th century was the center of the Wuyue kingdom (AD 907-978). They note that the "kingdom was ruled by members of the Qian family, noted for their devotion to Buddhism and their patronage of the arts", and point out that the large flowers and type of foliate scrolls in the openwork aureole are characteristic of works produced in the Zhejiang area. In the discussion of the unusual construction of the sculpture, p. 110, the flat disk on which the figure sits is described as a "flat removable lid with three semi-circular feet" that "serves as a cover for the lotus".
The bodhisattva in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 1) is also illustrated by D. Leidy and D. Strahan in Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, p. 110-12, no. 22, where the authors ascribe the figure to Zhejiang province, which during the 10th century was the center of the Wuyue kingdom (AD 907-978). They note that the "kingdom was ruled by members of the Qian family, noted for their devotion to Buddhism and their patronage of the arts", and point out that the large flowers and type of foliate scrolls in the openwork aureole are characteristic of works produced in the Zhejiang area. In the discussion of the unusual construction of the sculpture, p. 110, the flat disk on which the figure sits is described as a "flat removable lid with three semi-circular feet" that "serves as a cover for the lotus".