Page 57 - Chiense works of art sothebys march 14 2017 nyc

The present gures of Ksitigarbha belong to a small group of 651 1944 6 14 16
famille-rose Buddhist gures created in the Qing dynasty using 10 30 2013
developments in porcelain production to successfully capture
the long tradition of using bright colors to adorn deities of 48
Tibetan Buddhism. The introduction of the famille-rose palette
enabled craftsmen to produce porcelain gures and utilize Arts 1941 Exhibition of Chinese
the full spectrum of color schemes on Buddhist gures. 750
However, probably due to the fragility of the modeling and the 1994
multiple rings required to achieve desired results, only a small
numbers of gures appear to have been produced. 232

See a closely related example from the Yamanaka collection, 2001 10 29 606 2013 4 8
sold in our New York rooms, 14th-16th June 1944, lot 651; and 2002 4
a further gure sold at Nagel Auctions, Germany, 30th October 3055 2003
2013, lot 48.
29 705
A related gure belonging to this group, reputedly from the
Imperial Palace, was included in the Exhibition of Chinese 9 18 371
Arts, Messrs. C.T. Loo & Co., New York, 1941, cat. no. 750.
For a smaller and less elaborately decorated gure, see a 2014 5 28 3465
pair illustrated in Qingdai ciqi shangjian [Appreciation of Qing
dynasty ceramics], Hong Kong, 1994, pl. 232. Other examples 2014 9 18 19
sold at auction include an impressive Qianlong period famille-
rose gure of Amitayus, sold twice in our Hong Kong rooms, 967
29th October 2001, lot 606, and again, 8th April 2013, lot
3055; a gure of Guanyin, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th
April 2002, lot 705; a White Tara sold at Christie’s New York,
18th September 2003, lot 371; and a further gure of a seated
Amitayus, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th May 2014, lot
3465. A rare famille-rose lama, inscribed to the base and dated
to the 47th year of Qianlong (1782), was sold at Christie’s New
York, 18th/19th September 2014, lot 967.

Known as Dayuan Dizang Pusa in China, Ksitigarbha is
the supreme leader of the underworld. He vowed to take
responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six
worlds and not achieve Buddhahood unless all hells were
emptied. While in earlier eras he was depicted as a traditional
bodhisattva, by the Song dynasty he was usually represented
as a Buddhist monk dressed in monastic robes and holding
a wish-ful lling jewel (cintamani), as seen in the present
examples. He was also shown holding a sta , which was used
to alert insects and small animals of his approach so that he
would not accidentally cause harm. His image is similar to that
of the ctional version of Xuanzang (or Tang Sanzang) from
the Chinese classical novel Journey to the West, so observers
sometimes would misattribute them.

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 55