Page 140 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Jades, Met Museum Irving Collection NYC

61 Ⓒ 戭 A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF A
挷
⇅ġġġ
慹 SEATED BUDDHA
ἃ EARLY TANG DYNASTY
⛸
⁷ hollow-cast with the upper body molded in the round and the
lower half formed as a shaped façade for attachment to a
support, the Buddha seated in bhadrasana with the feet resting
on a blossoming lotus-form column, the right hand held in
abhayamudra, the left hand placed on the left knee with the palm
down, the body draped in a loose robe falling in rhythmic folds
against the slender form beneath, the head gently bowed, the
serene face framed by pendulous ears and a domed usnisha,
a short tang extending from the lower edge of the column and
another beneath the Buddha’s seat, wood stand (2)

Height 5⅝ in., 14.2 cm

PROVENANCE Ը๕
Eastern PaciÞ c Co., Hong Kong, 28th April 1986. 㜙㲘⓮埴炻楁㷗炻IJĺĹķ⸜ĵ㚰ijĹ㖍
Collection of Florence (1920-2018) and Herbert (1917-2016) ἃ伭ΐ㕗ġĩIJĺijıĮijıIJĹĪġ⍲崓ỗ䈡ġĩIJĺIJĸĮijıIJķĪɀ
Irving, no. 994. 㫸暚ằ⃟㓞啷炻䶐嘇ĺĺĵ
Small gilt-bronze votive images of the ‘Teaching Buddha’ were
produced in the Sui and Tang dynasties. They are characterized
by the Buddha seated on an elevated base with the folds of the
robe draping over the edge of the seat and the right hand raised
in abhayamudra. The base would have been secured to either
an individual stand, or installed among bodhisattvas and other
Þ gures as part of an altar group with a shared stand.
The present Þ gure sits in bhadrasana, which distinguishes
it from most votives of this type that show the Buddha in
dhyanasana. Other gilt-bronze ‘Teaching Buddha’ votives that
depict the Buddha in bhadrasana atop a lotus-form base include
a Sui dynasty example in the collection of the National Palace
Museum, Taipei, illustrated in The Crucible of Compassion and
Wisdom, Taipei, 1987, pl. 75; a Tang dynasty one that is part of
an altar group in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San
Francisco, illustrated in René-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé, Chinese,
Korean, and Japanese Sculpture: the Avery Brundage Collection,
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Tokyo and New York, 1974,
pl. 92; and a Tang dynasty Þ gure from the Arthur M. Sackler
Collection sold in these rooms, 18th March 2009, lot 245.

$ 40,000-60,000

138 SOTHEBY’S