A FINELY CAST GILT-BRONZE SEATED FIGURE OF AVALOKITESVARA

YUAN DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY

Details

A FINELY CAST GILT-BRONZE SEATED FIGURE OF AVALOKITESVARA
YUAN DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY

The bodhisattva is seated in rajalilasana, the posture of royal ease, with his right hand resting on his raised knee and the left hand resting on a book. His hair is swept back into a topknot beneath the crown accommodating the Amitabha, and long plaits cascade down the shoulders. The face has downcast eyes and a serene expression. The deity wears bracelets, earrings and a beaded necklace. A shawl is draped over the shoulders and around the arms and his dhoti is tied in a bow below the waist. The hems are finely detailed with incised lotus heads on scrolling foliage.
8 in. (20.3 cm.) high., box

Provenance

A French Collection, sold at Christie’s Paris, 8 June 2010, lot 404

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Lot Essay

It is interesting to note that while Yuan-dynasty figures seated in royal ease in portrayal of the Watermoon Guanyin are typically in keeping to the earlier Song style, the present figure with its curly hair and goatee resembles more to the images of the ascetic Shakyamuni, a popular Buddhist imagery during the Yuan period. Compare two similar examples from the Yuan period depicting the ascetic Shakyamuni, the first from the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated in Hai-wai Yi-chen, 'Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture', National Palace Museum, 1990, p. 171, no. 158; and the other from the Detroit Institute of Arts, illustrated ibid., p. 172, no. 159.

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