Page 23 - Bonhams Chinese Paintings and Works of Art Sept 15, 2015
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A GILT AND BLACK LACQUERED BRONZE SEATED SAGE A GILT-BRONZE SEATED FIGURE OF VAJRASATTVA
17th century 18th century
Seated in a relaxed pose with his right arm resting on a single-legged Elaborately attired, bejeweled, and coiffed in flowing tresses, the
arm rest, his scholar’s cap and hair colored with black pigment, the princely figure seated in dhyanasana with a tautly swaying body and
perforations in his jaw area meant to hold applied hair for a beard and holding a ghanta at his left hip while he raises his drilled right hand
the remaining surfaces covered with a layer of worn gilt lacquer. to mid-chest level, all supported by a crisply cast double lotus plinth
4 3/8in (11cm) high resealed by a bronze plate centered by a visvavajra.
$1,500 - 2,500 6 3/4in (17.2cm) high
$7,000 - 9,000
十七世紀 黑金漆銅賢者坐像
十八世紀 鎏金銅金剛薩埵坐像
The face, graceful hand gesture and scholar’s garb of this figure
are features often seen on depictions of the immortal Lu Dongbin, This figure is the Bodhisattva which simultaneously grasps the two
the patron of literature. For a painted copper alloy standing figure in complementary aspects of enlightenment as understood by the
the Musée Cernuschi, see Michael Maucuer, Bronzes de la Chine Vajrayana practitioners of the Manchu court. Here the female element
impériale des Song aux Qing, 2013, cat. no. 208, p. 56 (dated as of prajna wisdom is represented by the ghanta bell thrust towards his
16th/17th century). lap, while the delicate fingers of the upheld right hand are curled to
caress a now missing thunderbolt or vajra, the active male implement
8007 of expedient means or method.
A GROUP OF FOUR CHINESE AND NEPALESE MINIATURE
BRONZE BUDDHIST FIGURES The thin face is centered by a sharp nose tapered directly to the simple
Tang dynasty to 18th century eyebrows in a manner reminiscent of Nepali prototypes. This face,
The first a gilt bronze standing figure of Guanyin supported on a four- the crisply cast but simply rendered double lotus base, as well as the
legged plinth; the second a Ming period bronze head of luohan with treatment of the figure’s ‘Recompense Body’ of sumptuous raiment,
traces of pigment, possibly depicting Ananda, as suggested by his diadem and jewels are all consonant with other published 18th century
youthful face; the third a miniature 18th century gilt bronze seated Sino-Tibetan examples. See, for example, the seated statue of White Tara
figure of Shakyamuni with his hands cast in dharmachakramudra; and published by Wang Jiapeng et al. ed, Gugong Bowuyuancang Wenwu
the fourth a Nepalese gilt bronze seated figure of Tara seated on an Zhenpin Quanji vol 60: Zangchuan Fojiao Zaoxiang, Hong Kong, 2008,
openwork lotus throne backed by an arching mandorla. [4] p. 258, pl. 247. Though clearly a larger and more elaborate example than
1 1/2 to 3 7/8in (3.8 to 9.8cm) high the present lot, there are still notable similarities specifically in the beaded
$2,000 - 3,000 feet, the base, and the folds of the figures’ dhotis cascading towards the
front of the bases in fluid but tightly ordered waves of cloth.
唐至十八世紀 尼泊爾小型銅佛像四件
Also of note is the nearly identical face to the dated Gengyin nian
Amitayus figures the Qianlong emperor commissioned for the combined
celebrations of his 60th and his mother’s 80th birthdays in 1770, which
are popular in collections around the globe and at auction. The face of
a gilt-bronze Amitayus sold in our San Francisco rooms, sale 21008, 9
October 2013, lot 3166, was a particularly similar example.
CHINESE PAINTINGS AND WORKS OF ART | 21
