Page 20 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist Art, New York

18 SOTHEBY’S NEW YORK 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 BODIES OF INFINITE LIGHT

303 A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF

AVALOKITESHVARA
MING DYNASTY, 16TH / 17TH CENTURY

seated in rajalilasana, attired in a simple monk’s robe with a
floral-incised hem, swathed around the body and open at the
chest, the blue-pigmented, curly hair crowned with a scrolled
circlet centered by an ornament cast with Buddha Amitabha
seated on a blossoming lotus, the face with traces of polychrome
pigment with prominent black curling brows above the downcast
eyes, a small mustache over the lips and with a long, narrow
beard, the proper right hand holding a small cintamani jewel and
resting on the raised right knee, the left hand lowered, holding a
Buddhist text
Height 7¼ in., 18.4 cm

PROVENANCE
The Chang Foundation Collection.

LITERATURE
Jintongfo zaoxiang tulu/Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Taipei,
1993, pl. 67.

Compare a related figure from the collection of Robert E.
Kresko, now in the Saint Louis Art Museum, obj. no. 3:2005,
seated in the same manner, with similarly well-defined
curling hair, wearing a scrolled circlet and holding a text in
the form of a scroll, attributed to the Yuan or Ming dynasty.
The Saint Louis figure has been described as an arhat,
however the circlet shows traces of a loss to the scrolled
center; it is possible an ornament containing Amitabha like
that of the present figure was once attached, and is now
missing. If not for certain iconographic features such as the
Amitabha in the crown, the present figure might be taken
for an interpretation of a foreign practitioner.
明十六 / 十七世紀 銅鎏金觀音坐像
來源
鴻禧美術館收藏
出版
《金銅佛造像圖錄》，台北，1993年，圖版67

$ 20,000-30,000