Page 54 - Christie's Chinese Works of Art March 24 and 25th, 2022 NYC

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT JAPANESE COLLECTION
ⱷ733
PROVENANCE:
AN IMPORTANT AND VERY RARE STONE BUDDHIST STELE
NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY (AD 386-534), DATED BY INSCRIPTION TO Mizuno Tsurunosuke Collection, Osaka, early twentieth century.
AD 457 Dan Takuma (1858-1932) Collection, Japan.
Important private Japanese collection, prior to 1994, and thence by descent
The Buddha is shown seated in dhyanasana with hands held in dhyanamudra, within the family.
wearing robes that fall in heavy folds, and his sensitively carved face bears a
contemplative expression, beneath the hair and usnisha carved with a chevron- EXHIBITED:
like whorl pattern. The figure is flanked by two smaller acolytes and backed Tokyo, Takashimaya Department Store at Nihonbashi, Chinese Ancient
by a tall aurole carved with bands decorated with acolytes and diminutive Sculpture, 28 Apr – 10 May 1959.
Buddhas. The reverse is carved with the birth, bath, and first seven steps of the Osaka, Osaka City Museum, Chinese Art 5000 Years, 15 October – 23
Buddha, above a dedicatory inscription, followed by a date, corresponding to November 1966.
AD 457. Kagawa Prefecture, Kagawa Prefectural Cultural Hall, Ancient Chinese Art -
The Origin of Japanese Art, 1968.
16¿ in. (41 cm.) high, softwood stand
Tokyo, Tokyo National Museum, Oriental Art - Asian Gallery Opening Memorial
Exhibition, 1969.
$200,000-300,000 Osaka, Osaka City Museum, Chinese Art from Six Dynasties, 10 October - 9
November, 1975.
重要日本私人珍藏 Osaka, Osaka City Museum, Chinese Buddhist Sculptures, 6 October -11
November, 1984.
北魏 太安三年(457年) 石雕釋迦文佛像
LITERATURE:
碑文：太安三年九月廿三日歲次丁酉清信士宋德興偽命過亡女猔香造作釋迦文佛像 Osvald Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vol. 1,
願先師七世父母外內眷屬口全知識亡女猔香一切眾生生生共其福所往生□□值遇 London, 1925, pl. 116-7.
諸佛永離苦因必獲此願早成菩提大道 Osvald Sirén, Histoire des arts anciens de la Chine III La Sculpture, Paris, 1930,
pl. 47 C & D.
Osvald Sirén, Chinese Art, London, 1935, pl. 18 B & C.
Stone Buddha, Osaka City Museum, Osaka, 1953, no. 1.
Bijutsu Card 14, Bijutsu Shuppansha, Tokyo, 1954, no. 928.
Suzuki Kei and Matsubara Saburo eds., Summary of Asian Art history – vol.2,
Tokyo, 1957, no.37.
Takashimaya Department Store at Nihonbashi, Chinese Ancient Sculpture,
1959, no. A.
Mizuno Seiichi, Bronze and Stone Sculpture of China, Tokyo, 1960, nos. 36-37.
Matsubara Saburo, Research on the History of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture,
Tokyo, 1961, fig. 5 and nos.12-13.
Sekai Bijutsu Zenshu 14 - China- Six dynasties, Tokyo, 1963, no. 48.
Kobijutsu 10, Sansaisha, Tokyo, 1965, p. 24.
Osaka City museum, Chinese Art 5000 Years, Osaka, 1966, no. 2-12.
Ancient Chinese Art - The Origin of Japanese Art, Kagawa, 1968, F18.
Mizuno Seiichi, Chinese Buddhist Art, Tokyo, 1968, nos. 31-32.
Nagahiro Toshio ed., Asiatic Art in Japanese Collections, vol. 3, Sculpture, 1968,
no. 23.
Tokyo National Museum, Oriental Art - Asian Gallery Opening Memorial
Exhibition, Tokyo, 1969, no. 57.
Yamato Bunka 51, Yamato Bunkakan, Nara, 1969, no.1.
Matsubara Saburo ed., Complete History of Asian Art, Tokyo, 1972, no. 216.
Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, Chinese Art from Six Dynasties, Osaka, 1975,
no. 3-65.
Tanaka Yoshiyasu ed., Nihon no Bijutsu 8 – No.159, Birth of Buddha, 1979, no. 26.
Matsubara Saburo, Chinese Art - Sculpture, Tokyo, 1982, p. 132.
Osaka City Museum, Chinese Buddhist Sculptures, Osaka, 1984, no. 10, p. 28.
Tokyo National Museum, Museum 432, Tokyo, 1987.
Jin Shen in Hai wai ji Gong Yai cang li dai fo xiang: zhen pin ji nian tu jian
(Catalogue of Treasures of Buddhist Sculpture in Overseas Collections
including Hong Kong and Taiwan), Shanxi, 2007, p. 6.
The exceptional and important stone stele belongs to a small group of

(reverse)
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