Page 124 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

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A SUPERBLY CARVED MASSIVE WHITE MARBLE TORSO OF
BUDDHA
EARLY TANG DYNASTY, LATE 7TH-8TH CENTURY
The fgure sits in dhyanasana on a lotus base above a waisted octagonal
lotiform base, with the left hand resting on the knee. The muscular,
upright torso is clad in diaphanous robes draped over the left
shoulder, with the folds piled over the sole of the foot and continuing
over the front of the base.
47Ω in. (120 cm.) high, wood pedestal
$1,000,000-1,500,000
PROVENANCE
Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 April 1996, lot 566.
Mayuyama Ryusendo, Tokyo.
LITERATURE
Matsubara Saburo, Bukkyo Geijutsu, vol. 230, Tokyo, 1997, fg. 1.
Sun Di (ed.), Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist
Sculptures in Overseas Collections, vol. 5, Beijing, 2005, p. 1027.
This magnifcent sculpture embodies a profound spirituality achieved
through the remarkable plasticity of drapery and form. The fgure represents
a Buddha seated on a double-lotus pedestal and presumably engaged
in preaching. The Buddha assumes the dhyanasana pose, a classic yogic
posture in which the legs are locked in full-lotus position with the soles of
the feet upturned, in this case, with the sole of the right foot visible through
the diaphanous robe. The monk’s robes, which the Buddha wears, are
arrayed to cover the proper left shoulder but to expose the right. The double-
lotus pedestal is tiered, with an octagonal base symbolizing the Buddha’s
Eight Fold Path, a circular top in the form of an open lotus blossom, and a
constricted, eight-lobed, rounded central section that bridges the transition
from octagonal base to the circular top.
The Buddha’s left hand rests on his left knee, palm facing inward. The right
arm, now missing, likely was raised in the abhayamudra, or gesture of “do
not fear”, which would indicate that the Buddha is preaching. The previous
identifcation of this Buddha’s mudra as the bhumisparshamudra, or earth-
touching gesture, which symbolizes the Buddha’s enlightenment, cannot be
maintained. In the bhumisparshamudra the Historical Buddha Sakyamuni is
shown seated, his left hand resting in his lap, the palm turned upward, his
right hand extended over his right knee to touch the earth in order to call it to
witness his enlightenment. The canonical texts clearly state that the Buddha
touched the earth with his right hand. If the missing right arm indeed was
raised in the abhayamudra, then the placement of the left hand on the
knee might be regarded as a variation of the varadamudra, the gift-giving
gesture, also associated with preaching. Moreover, if the right arm displayed
the abhayamudra then the present sculpture likely represented either the
Historical Buddha Sakyamuni or Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light,
in a preaching mode. Because the sculpture lacks an identifying inscription,
not to mention its right arm and any distinguishing iconographic attributes,
the exact identity of this Buddha likely will remain an enigma.
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This sculpture’s elegant yet naturalistic style dates it to the late seventh
century or possibly to the very beginning of the eighth. The torso’s broad
shoulders and narrow waist are more naturalistically defned and the chest
more descriptively modeled than those of sculptures from the Northern Qi
(AD 550–575) and Sui (AD 518–618) dynasties—and also those from the
frst decades of the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907)—all of which tend to be
more smooth and columnar in character. Clinging tightly, the diaphanous
drapery clearly reveals the body’s form, even clearly outlining the form of
the right foot resting the Buddha’s lap; the arrangement of the drapery also
points to the sculpture’s late seventh- or very early eighth-century date, as
do the drapery folds, particularly those over the arm and abdomen, which
recall well-designed, well-tailored pleats. By contrast the drapery folds of
Buddha images from the Northern Qi and Sui dynasties are characteristically
indicated by incised lines or relief ridges. (See Wai-kam Ho “Notes on
Chinese Sculpture from Northern Ch’i to Sui, Part I: Two Seated Stone
Buddha in the Cleveland Museum”, Archives of Asian Art, 22, 1968-1969, p.
6, fg 1; and Matsubara Saburo, Chugoku Bukkyo Chōkoku Shiron [A History
of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture], illustration vol. 2, Later Six Dynasties and
Sui, Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1995, pp. 489-491.) As demonstrated by
a Seated Buddha in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum (F85-11),
Kansas City, Missouri, and by another in the collection of the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, sculptures of the Buddha from later in the eighth
century appear feshier, and thus heavier; in addition, their robes are more
voluminous, and their drapery folds are less formally patterned in the manner
of pleats. Moreover, the voluminous drapery of the slightly later sculptures
often cascades over the edge and down the front of the double-lotus
pedestal, in many instances completely concealing the pedestal’s upper
tier. (For the Kansas City Buddha, see Sun Di, ed. Comprehensive Illustrated
Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Sculptures in Overseas Collections, vol. 5,
Beijing, 2005, p. 1008. For Los Angeles County Museum of Art, see W.
Watson, Art of Dynastic China, New York, 1981, color plate 80.)
That the drapery on the right side of the torso is complete and undisturbed—
i.e., it remained undamaged when the fgure lost its right arm—implies
that there was open space between torso and right arm, a feature of many
seventh and early eighth-century Chinese sculptures of the Buddha. In fact,
sculptors frst took delight in incorporating openwork elements into their
sculptures in the Northern Qi period, often piercing the space between
the right arm and the torso, a characteristic that continued into the early
Tang. At the beginning of the eighth century, sculptors began to alter
the confguration of the Buddha’s drapery so that the edge of the robe
descended from the left shoulder, traversed the chest and abdomen, looped
behind the right arm, and then rose to cover the outer portion of the right
shoulder, thus flling the previously open space between torso and right arm.
That new arrangement of the Buddha’s robe became standard from the early
eighth century onward, as evinced by the Seated Buddhas in Kansas City
and Los Angeles mentioned above.
唐初 石雕坐佛軀像