Page 240 - Christie's, Important Chinese Works of Art, Hong Kong Dec 3 2021

3043

A GILT-BRONZE SEATED FIGURE
OF AVALOKITESVARA

MING DYNATY, 15TH CENTURY
The figure is cast seated in dhyanasana on a double-
lotus stand, with his right hand held in vitarka mudra,
left in dhyana mudra, dressed in long flowing robes
left open at the chest to reveal the sash-tied dhoti and
pendent jewelled necklace. The hair worn in long
tresses trailing on the shoulders and pulled up in a
topknot behind the crown centred by a small figure
of Amitabha Buddha. The lower edge of the base
is incised with a four-character inscription reading
Qiantang Chen zao ‘made by Chen from Qiantang’.
11 in. (28 cm.) high
HK$500,000-800,000
US$65,000-100,000

According to the inscription, the maker of the present
figure is probably Chen Yanqing of the early 15th century.
The signature of Chen Yanqing is found on two dated
gilt-bronze figures, one is a gilt-bronze figure of Laozi,
dated 1438, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, illustrated in Daisy Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan,
Wisdom Embodied. Chinese Buddhist and Daoist
Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
2010, pl. 38; the other a gilt-bronze figure of Zhenwu
dated 1439, from the collection of Robert Sonnenschein
II, now in the Art Institute of Chicago, illustrated in
Stephen Little, Taoism and the Arts of China, Berkeley,
2000, pl. 103. Compare also with a gilt-bronze figure
of seated Shakyamuni bearing Chen’s signature sold at
Sotheby’s London, 8 November 2017, lot 67.

明十五世紀 鎏金銅觀音坐像
款識：錢塘陳造
本像造型古樸大方，寶相莊嚴，據款識為明初陳彥清所
造。比較另外兩尊帶陳彥清銘款及年款的鎏金銅造像，
一為紐約大都會博物館藏老子像，據銘文斷代 1438 年，
一為芝加哥美術館藏真武像，據銘文斷代1438年1439年。
另參考一尊帶陳彥清款但無年款的鎏金銅釋迦牟尼像，
2017 年 11 月 8 日於倫敦蘇富比拍賣，拍品 67 號。

mark
238