Page 18 - 2019 September 11th Bonhams Lewis Collection Japanese and Korean Art NYC

521
A RARE AND IMPORTANT KOREAN GILT BRONZE FIGURE OF
CHIJANG BOSAL (KSITIGARBHA)
Goryeo dynasty (918-1392), 13th/14th century
The compassionate bodhisattva shown in the guise of a monk,
seated cross-legged in meditation and dressed in flowing robes open
at the chest, a long cowl covering the head gathered at the back
and secured with a band, the right hand raised with the thumb and
middle finger joined in a mudra of teaching and the left hand holding
a Chintamani (wish-granting jewel or pearl), the urna of inlaid amber,
traces of gilding over black lacquer; set on a later fitted wood stand
20 7/8in (53cm) high (figure only)

$800,000-1,200,000
Exhibited and Published
Kumja Paik Kim, Goryeo Dynasty: Korea’s Age of Enlightenment,
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco-Chong-Moon Lee Center for
Asian Art and Culture, in cooperation with the National Museum
of Korea and Nara National Museum, 2003, exhibition catalogue,
October 18, 2003 - January 11, 2004

Published
Stephen Little, “A Korean Gilt-Bronze Sculpture of Kshitigarbha
Bodhisattva,” Orientations, September 2003, pp.52-56

As noted by Stephen Little in the article referred to above,
Ksitigarbha’s reputation as a savior of deceased children and of
tortured souls in the underworld led to his great popularity throughout
East Asia, where the earliest extant images of the deity are to be
found at the seventh-century Longmen cave complex in China’s
Henan Province; he is also depicted in paintings of the Five Dynasties
period (late ninth-early tenth century), originally preserved at
Dunhuang and now in museums in Paris and Kyoto. The Dunhuang
paintings represent the deity as a monk and we see him in the same
guise in the present lot, with elaborate bracelets, necklace, and a
string of jewels suggesting his divine status. When the bodhisattva
is shown as the principal figure at the center of a group of attendant
deities in Goryeo-dynasty Korean paintings (themselves based on
Chinese prototypes), he shares several features in common with
the Lewis Collection Chijang Bosal, including the squarish face and
upper body as well as similar cowl, urna, cape and jewels; in later
Korean versions, whether paintings or sculptures, the cowl and other
features are no longer present.

Sculptural representations of Ksitigarbha are commonly found in
Japanese art but are extremely rare in Korea; only one other Goryeo-
dynasty Korean bronze figure of the deity is known, a smaller and
less ambitious work in a Japanese private collection.

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