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Lot Essay
The figure represents Padmapani, the lotus-bearing manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, and is accompanied by two inscriptions. The first is incised along the figure's raised platform; among its few discernible characters, the name "Li Dao Sheng" can be read. The second inscription, rendered in calligraphy on the lid of the accompanying wooden box, records that the figure was commissioned by Li Daoyu on behalf of his deceased son, identifying the object as a votive offering made in his son's honor.
The image belongs to the small votive-bronze tradition rather than to the monumental stone lineage of Chinese Buddhist sculpture: a frontal bodhisattva stands within a flame-edged mandorla, its body rendered as a slender relief form set against the aureole rather than as a fully independent, freestanding figure. The long scarf, high chignon, lotus base, and open four-legged plinth situate the object within the established vocabulary of portable devotional images characteristic of the Northern Dynasties period. The work's visual force derives from the contrast between its compact, almost architectural support and the rippling aureole, the chased flame pattern of which transforms the figure into a self-contained votive shrine. The reverse bears a rudimentary incised depiction of Padmapani, complementing the frontal composition.
The lotus attribute, held by the figure on both faces of the object, identifies it as Padmapani — known in Chinese as Guanshiyin Pusa — one of the most popular subjects in early Chinese Buddhist devotional practice. As a symbol of purity, the lotus was among the deity's principal iconographic attributes, and its repeated presence here underscores the object's function as a focus of personal devotion.
For a comparable example, see a related figure sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 29 October 2001, lot 503, dated by inscription to A.D. 504, which similarly exhibits comparable drapery treatment and a relatively naive rendering of the facial features.
The image belongs to the small votive-bronze tradition rather than to the monumental stone lineage of Chinese Buddhist sculpture: a frontal bodhisattva stands within a flame-edged mandorla, its body rendered as a slender relief form set against the aureole rather than as a fully independent, freestanding figure. The long scarf, high chignon, lotus base, and open four-legged plinth situate the object within the established vocabulary of portable devotional images characteristic of the Northern Dynasties period. The work's visual force derives from the contrast between its compact, almost architectural support and the rippling aureole, the chased flame pattern of which transforms the figure into a self-contained votive shrine. The reverse bears a rudimentary incised depiction of Padmapani, complementing the frontal composition.
The lotus attribute, held by the figure on both faces of the object, identifies it as Padmapani — known in Chinese as Guanshiyin Pusa — one of the most popular subjects in early Chinese Buddhist devotional practice. As a symbol of purity, the lotus was among the deity's principal iconographic attributes, and its repeated presence here underscores the object's function as a focus of personal devotion.
For a comparable example, see a related figure sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 29 October 2001, lot 503, dated by inscription to A.D. 504, which similarly exhibits comparable drapery treatment and a relatively naive rendering of the facial features.