Page 70 - Christies IMportant Chinese Art Sept 26 2020 NYC

THE IRVING COLLECTION 歐雲伉儷珍藏

1542
A VERY RARE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF SEATED GUANYIN
17TH-18TH CENTURY
The bodhisattva is shown seated in dhyanasana on a waisted lotus base,
with the hands held in dhyanasana mudra above the lap, the long hair
drawn up into a tall coiffure (jatamukuta) bound with a band hung with
ropes of looped beads surrounding and flanking an image of Amitabha
Buddha, and wearing an elaborate bead necklace and earrings.
14√ in. (37.8 cm.) high

$60,000-80,000
PROVENANCE:
Robert H. Ellsworth, New York, no. SC101, by 1984.
Galaxie Art & Gift Company, Hong Kong, 1988.
The Irving Collection, New York.
LITERATURE:
Ann Ray Martin, "American Mandarin," Connoisseur, November 1984,
p. 95.
十七/十八世紀 銅鎏金觀音坐像

The iconography of this gilt-bronze figure of Guanyin is extremely
unusual and intriguing. The stylization of the drapery and the
double lotus base are characteristic of gilt-bronze figures of the
early- to mid-Qing, 17th-18th century, such as the gilt-bronze figure
of Buddha Dipankara, dated by inscription to 1662, in the collection
of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (accession
no. 1989.110.62; illustrated by D. P. Leidy, D. Strahan, et al., Wisdom
Embodied, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, 2010, p. 23). (Fig. 1) The head, however, with its
elaborate, tall coiffure and twisted cords of hair falling in loops behind
the pendulous ears, is based on that of a distinctive group of figures
produced for the Duan royal family of the kingdom of Dali (AD 937–
1253), an independent state in southwestern China that was coeval
with China’s Song dynasty (AD 907–1279) and more or less congruent
with present-day Yunnan province. See, for example, the 12th-century,
Dali Kingdom figure of this type in The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, illustrated ibid., pp. 136-38, and another example, also from the
collection of Florence and Herbert Irving, sold at Christie’s New York,
20 March 2019, lot 813. (Fig. 2) These Dali Kingdom figures, which
feature images of seated Buddha Amitabha at the base of the high
topknot of hair, are identified as Acuoye Guanyin, a manifestation
of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and are thought to have been
made as icons for members of the ruling Duan Family signifying
their legitimacy to rule. Images of Acuoye Guanyin do not appear to
continue beyond the 12th to early 13th century. Following the invasion
by the Mongols in 1253, the members of the Duan royal family were
enfeoffed by Kublai Khan and served as vassals to the Mongols until
the Ming conquest of Yunnan in 1381.

Fig. 1 Gilt-bronze figure of Dipankara, Qing dynasty, dated 1662. Bequest of
John M. Crawford, Jr. Accession no. 1989.110.62, Courtesy of RISD Museum,
Providence, RI.