A FINE AND VERY RARE EARLY MING GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF AVALOKITESVARA

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A FINE AND VERY RARE EARLY MING GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF AVALOKITESVARA
14TH/15TH CENTURY

The figure in an elegant casual pose sitting with one leg over the other, both hands clasping the left knee, looking to the left with the head slightly lowered in contemplation, the elaborate double crown accommodating a figure of Amitabha seated on a lotus thrown between cloud-scrolls, the hair partially tied in a top knot with two plaits falling at each side of the shoulders, wearing decorative armlets, the pendulous ears with heavy disc-pendants, fine beaded jewellery trailing over the torso and repeated around the lower legs, the garment edged with a floral pattern around the midriff decorated with florettes at the back, the celestial scarf draped across the shoulders falling in floating rhythm to the sides
11 1/2 in. (29.1 cm.) high, box, gilt wood base

Lot Essay

There appears to be no other comparable published examples of a Buddhist bronze in this relaxed seated posture. However, the fluidity of the body movement, facial features, highly ornate beading adorning the chest and the around the lower section of the body, wrist bands and armbands, bear similarities to the pair of dancing Bodhisattvas, sold in our London Rooms, 31 October 1972, lot 90, and illustrated in Von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, no. 149F, dated to the Xuande period.

(US$180,000-230,000)

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