拍品专文
It is rare to find related Buddhist gilt bronzes from the Dali Kingdom (11th-12th century), located in present day Yunnan province, cast in seated posture although several examples in standing position published, such as the figure in the Metropolitan Museum, illustrated by Deydier, Chinese Bronzes, pl. 150; another in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculptures in the Avery Brundage Collection, pl. 140; a third in the Yunnan Provincial Museum, illustrated in Gems of China's Cultural Relics, 1990, pl. 160; a further example was included in the British Museum exhibition, Buddhism Art and Faith, and illustrated by W. Zwalf (ed.), Catalogue, no. 297.
Stylistically, the standing figures are very closely related to the present figure in terms of the unusual and distinctive headdress, personal adornments and hand gestures, and were probably cast in the same workshop. A smaller standing figure is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by Rose Kerr (ed.), in Chinese Art and Design, p. 98, where the author points out the figure's fusion of influences from India, Tibet, Nepal, Burma, China and south-east Asia.
Little was known about Dali bronzes until the American scholar Helen Chapin published, in 1944, a scroll painting known as the Long Scroll of Buddhist Images by the late 12th century Yunnanese artist, Zhang Shengwen. Chapin identified a group of bronzes in Western collection in similar style and iconography as of Yunnan origin. Interest in Yunnanese bronzes intensified again when restoration work which took place in the late 1970's at the Qianxun Pagoda, Yunnan province, yielded a reliquary deposit from its roof. One of the finds include a standing Guanyin, identical to the present figure in style except for an additional belt above the dhoti. This particular figure is cast in solid gold with a silver mandorla. For an illustration and discussion of the Yunnanese Guanyin, see Lutz, Orientations, Buddhist Art in Yunnan, February 1992, fig. 5, pp. 46-50.
Bronzes of this type were made for the Dali court and such images were also known in the Nanzhao tuzhuan as Acuoye Guanyin, or the 'All Victorious Guanyin'. These figures were thought to have been cast as talismans for the royal family, W. Zwalf (ed.), op.cit., p. 206.
For another example seated in mirror image to the present lot and wearing beaded jewellery chains from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, cf. Recently Acquired Gilt-Bronze Buddhist Images, fig. 16. Of all the known examples of Dali bronzes, a point of particular note is that all the hands are in vitarka mudra and varada mudra, the gestures of teaching.
(US$250,000-300,000)
Stylistically, the standing figures are very closely related to the present figure in terms of the unusual and distinctive headdress, personal adornments and hand gestures, and were probably cast in the same workshop. A smaller standing figure is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by Rose Kerr (ed.), in Chinese Art and Design, p. 98, where the author points out the figure's fusion of influences from India, Tibet, Nepal, Burma, China and south-east Asia.
Little was known about Dali bronzes until the American scholar Helen Chapin published, in 1944, a scroll painting known as the Long Scroll of Buddhist Images by the late 12th century Yunnanese artist, Zhang Shengwen. Chapin identified a group of bronzes in Western collection in similar style and iconography as of Yunnan origin. Interest in Yunnanese bronzes intensified again when restoration work which took place in the late 1970's at the Qianxun Pagoda, Yunnan province, yielded a reliquary deposit from its roof. One of the finds include a standing Guanyin, identical to the present figure in style except for an additional belt above the dhoti. This particular figure is cast in solid gold with a silver mandorla. For an illustration and discussion of the Yunnanese Guanyin, see Lutz, Orientations, Buddhist Art in Yunnan, February 1992, fig. 5, pp. 46-50.
Bronzes of this type were made for the Dali court and such images were also known in the Nanzhao tuzhuan as Acuoye Guanyin, or the 'All Victorious Guanyin'. These figures were thought to have been cast as talismans for the royal family, W. Zwalf (ed.), op.cit., p. 206.
For another example seated in mirror image to the present lot and wearing beaded jewellery chains from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, cf. Recently Acquired Gilt-Bronze Buddhist Images, fig. 16. Of all the known examples of Dali bronzes, a point of particular note is that all the hands are in vitarka mudra and varada mudra, the gestures of teaching.
(US$250,000-300,000)