Page 62 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist Art, New York

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

316 A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF KASHYAPA

16TH / 17TH CENTURY

the enlightened figure cast standing with the proper left hand
grasping the other in front of the chest, wearing a kasaya
secured over the shoulder with a ring and cord, the ushnisha
clearly visible above the characteristic furrowed and voluminous
brows, the cheekbones, neck, and sinuous forearms reflecting
the ascetic path, raised on a quatrefoil base above a ring of lotus
petals

Height 6¾ in., 17.2 cm
PROVENANCE
The Chang Foundation Collection.

LITERATURE
Jintongfo zaoxiang tulu/Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Taipei,
1993, pl. 69.
Kashyapa has been depicted from the Northern and
Southern dynasties to present day as an old Indian ascetic,
with a prominent cranial bump and long, unruly brows. He is
identified in early texts as one of the Seven Buddhas of the
Past, specifically as the third Buddha of the bhadrakalpa,
or present era. Compare a bronze figure of Kashyapa,
in the collection of the Tianjin Antique and Curiosity
Company, illustrated in Jintong foxiang/Gilt Bronze Buddhist
Sculptures, Beijing, 1998, pl. 23, with similarities to the
present figure including a closely related quatrefoil base.
A Qing dynasty kesi from the collection of Avery Brundage,
now preserved in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco,
obj. no. B60.DI02, executed in the style of the Tang artist
Lu Lengjia and dated 1744 by inscription, depicts Kashyapa
in a very similar style to the present figure.
十六 / 十七世紀 銅鎏金迦葉尊者立像
來源
鴻禧美術館收藏
出版
《金銅佛造像圖錄》，台北，1993年，圖版69

$ 15,000-20,000