A MAGNIFICENT POLYCHROME WOOD FIGURE OF GUANYIN

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A MAGNIFICENT POLYCHROME WOOD FIGURE OF GUANYIN
12TH/13TH CENTURY

Standing on a circular base, with the left hand raised and the right hand lowered, both in vitarkamudra, wearing bracelets and a beaded floral necklace, with twisted scarves across the shoulders draped around the arms falling in loops, the legs covered in by a dhoti tied and gathered at the waist, the face with a serene expression with downcast inlaid eyes, below the hair dressed into a double top chignon crowned with a tiara of flowers and scrolls, traces of polychrome remain, age cracks (small areas replaced, old losses)
90 1/2in. (230cm.) high

Lot Essay

Extant examples of wood sculptures of such size are very rare. A exceptionally large figure (305cm. high) in the Royal Ontario Museum is illustrated in Homage to Heaven, Homage to Earth, pl. 105. Cf, a large (218.5cm. high) figure in the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated in Hai Wai Yi Chen: Buddhist Sculpture , pl. 146, of possibly earlier date which retains more details of its scarves but has lost its arms; another standing figure (also without forearms) is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, illustrated by Sickman and Soper, The Art an Architecture of China, pl. 133; this is of similar date to the present lot. Other standing figures below 2 metres in height of note are in the Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, (184cm.) high, see ibid, pl. 136, this is one of the more complete examples with hands in comparable mudra to the present figure; two other polychromed standing Guanyins are in the Royal Ontario Museum one of which is dated A.D. 1195 and measures 190.5cm. high and is illustrated in Homage to Heaven and Earth, pl. 104

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