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Lot Essay
This superb large wood figure of the Bodhisattva of Compassion is sculpted in the round. He is seated majestically in lalitasana with the right leg pendent and supported on a lotus flower. The right arm rests on a pierced rocky outcrop and the left hand is positioned upwards on the lap. The high crown has a representation of Amitabha Buddha, with the hair arranged in long tresses that fall over the shoulders. He wears an elegant necklace decorated with lotus flowers and chrysanthemums set within a ruyi-form scrolled framework.
The iconography is based on the Gandavyuha chapter of the Buddhist Avatamsakasutra where Avalokiteshvara or Guanyin resided on Mount Potalaka where the young pilgrim Sudhana visited him. He found Guanyin seated on the rocky shores of a grotto contemplating the reflection of the moon in the water. Over time this specific form of Guanyin became better known as Water-Moon Guanyin.
Representations of Guanyin went through a series of stylistic changes throughout the different stages of Chinese art. It started with the thin and elongated version during the various fractions of the Six Dynasties (AD 265-589) and slowly adapted to the Indian style with clinging drapery and billowing scarves. During the Tang period the figure gradually became more and more robust, powerful and majestic in posture and resplendent in jewelry. This form was more or less accepted as the standard one during the Song dynasty. During the subsequent dynasties of the Yuan and early Ming, wooden examples of this sacred image became even more robust demonstrating an authoritative appearance, like the present example. Compare a large Ming-dynasty wood figure of Guanyin sitting in the position of royal ease in the Musée Cernuschi, Paris, M.C. 9944.
This exceptional figure has a particularly long and distinguished provenance. It was included in the seminal 1924 publication, An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Sculpture, by Sir Arthur Leigh Bollan Ashton (1897-1983), a British art historian and director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. (Fig. 1) At the time of its publication, the figure was cited as being in the Sauphar Collection in Paris. Lucien Sauphar (1856-1935) served as the mayor of the 9th arrondissement in Paris and amassed a significant collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works. Lucien’s son, Jean, also amassed a significant collection of Chinese, Japanese and other Asian works of art.
The result of Art Discovery radiocarbon (C14) test no. AD6456 is consistent with the dating of the figure.
The iconography is based on the Gandavyuha chapter of the Buddhist Avatamsakasutra where Avalokiteshvara or Guanyin resided on Mount Potalaka where the young pilgrim Sudhana visited him. He found Guanyin seated on the rocky shores of a grotto contemplating the reflection of the moon in the water. Over time this specific form of Guanyin became better known as Water-Moon Guanyin.
Representations of Guanyin went through a series of stylistic changes throughout the different stages of Chinese art. It started with the thin and elongated version during the various fractions of the Six Dynasties (AD 265-589) and slowly adapted to the Indian style with clinging drapery and billowing scarves. During the Tang period the figure gradually became more and more robust, powerful and majestic in posture and resplendent in jewelry. This form was more or less accepted as the standard one during the Song dynasty. During the subsequent dynasties of the Yuan and early Ming, wooden examples of this sacred image became even more robust demonstrating an authoritative appearance, like the present example. Compare a large Ming-dynasty wood figure of Guanyin sitting in the position of royal ease in the Musée Cernuschi, Paris, M.C. 9944.
This exceptional figure has a particularly long and distinguished provenance. It was included in the seminal 1924 publication, An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Sculpture, by Sir Arthur Leigh Bollan Ashton (1897-1983), a British art historian and director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. (Fig. 1) At the time of its publication, the figure was cited as being in the Sauphar Collection in Paris. Lucien Sauphar (1856-1935) served as the mayor of the 9th arrondissement in Paris and amassed a significant collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works. Lucien’s son, Jean, also amassed a significant collection of Chinese, Japanese and other Asian works of art.
The result of Art Discovery radiocarbon (C14) test no. AD6456 is consistent with the dating of the figure.