A RARE SMALL GILT-BRONZE GUARDIAN FIGURE

5TH/6TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE SMALL GILT-BRONZE GUARDIAN FIGURE
5TH/6TH CENTURY
Finely cast as a sinewy bearded figure shown standing tensely on a lotus base as if rushing forward in a threatening movement with right hand held in a fist and left hand with fingers splayed, his face set in a fierce grimace, wearing short crisply cast robes that flare out to the side and a scarf with tasseled ends that drape across the body and are secured at the shoulders by discs
4 5/8 in. (11.7 cm.) high, cloth base

Lot Essay

Buddhist guardian figures, such as this extraordinary example, are typically represented in tense movement, with twisted torsos, contorted limbs, grasping hands and fierce expressions. Such figures would have been set at the four corners of a Buddhist altar to guard the four cardinal points as protectors of Buddhist Law. Compare several small gilt-bronze guardian figures dated to the Tang and Six Dynasties periods, illustrated by H. Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Tokyo, 1967, pp. 133-5, nos. 87-92, and the guardian figure wearing similar drapery to that of the present figure, illustrated in Rikucho no bijutsu (The Art of the Six Dynasties), Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 1975, p. 36, no. 3.178.

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