Page 113 - 2020 October 8 HK Fine Classical Paintings

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A FINELY CARVED LIMESTONE FIGURE OF 唐 石灰石雕釋迦牟尼佛坐像
SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA
TANG DYNASTY 來源：
慎德堂，台北，1990年代初
carved seated with the right hand held in bhumisparsha
mudra, portrayed dressed in a traditional style Indian garment
draped over the shoulders and partially exposing the chest,
the textiles depicted cascading in folds, all below the serene
facial expression flanked by a pair of pendulous earlobes, wood
stand
39 cm, 15⅜ in.

PROVENANCE
C.C. Teng, Taipei, early 1990s.
HK$ 1,000,000-1,500,000
US$ 129,000-194,000
This sensitively carved figure of Shakyamuni Buddha
encapsulates the sensuous naturalism of the Tang dynasty,
where the religious message is delivered through an accessible
form of human beauty, a period marking the fully matured
style of Buddhist stone sculpture in China. The Buddha
is depicted wearing a traditional Indian garment over his
shoulders, the folds of the drapery naturalistically depicted.
The figure closely relates to carved figures of Buddha in other
media from the Tang dynasty. See, for instance, a larger dry
lacquer figure of Amitabha Buddha in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Denise
Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese
Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New Haven, 2010, cat. no. 13. For a larger limestone
example, see a Buddha from Shaanxi province, dated to AD
639, illustrated in Osvald Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the
Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vol. 2, Bangkok, 1998 ed., pl.
365. See also a painted marble figure of Buddha with similar
iconography and treatment of the drapery, from the Arthur
M. Sackler collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 18th March
2009, lot 359.

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