Page 191 - March 17 2017 Chinese Art NYC, Christies

PROPERTY FROM A PENNSYLVANIA PRIVATE
COLLECTION

1180

A RARE GREEN, YELLOW AND CREAM-
GLAZED TILEWORKS DAOIST SHRINE
LATE MING-EARLY QING DYNASTY,
16TH-17TH CENTURY

The bearded deity is shown seated on a cloth-
draped lotus throne with his right hand raised and
both arms resting on a three-legged, semi-circular
arm rest with tightly curved ends. His hair is drawn
up under a small lotus crown, and he is fanked by
two phoenixes below a third phoenix with spread
wings at the top of the shaped panel that rises
from the back of the tiered pedestal, and a dragon
is shown in front of the tiered pedestal between
the upper and middle platforms. The whole is
covered in green, amber, aubergine and clear
glazes .

19æ in. (50.3 cm.) high, wood stand

$6,000-8,000

PROVENANCE

Rare Art, Inc., New York, 1979.

This rare tileworks fgure likely represents one
of the three highest deities of the later Daoist
pantheon, the Three Purities: the Sanqing-
Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning, the
Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure or the
Celestial Worthy of the Way and its Power. Each
of these three deities is represented in hanging
scrolls illustrated by S. Little, S. Eichman et al.,
in Taoism and the Arts of China, The Art Institute
of Chicago, 2000, pp. 228-30, nos. 65-67. As
with the present fgure, each is bearded and
shown seated with his arms resting on a curved
arm rest, of the type seen on the present fgure.
Of the three deities depicted, the present fgure
most closely resembles the deity depicted in the
frst hanging scroll, no. 65, the Celestial Worthy
of Primordial Beginning. Like the present fgure,
he wears a small lotus crown, is seated on a lotus
throne raised on a multi-tiered dais and holds his
hands in a similar position, with a pearl held in
the right hand. This painting is dated to the 16th
century.

明末/清初 三彩道教神明坐像

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