Page 129 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Important Chinese Art | Sotheby's

The present work was likely cast in Zhejiang province, the epicenter of the Wuyue Kingdom (907-978). This territory was ruled by
the Qian family, a clan of notable patronage to Buddhism and to the arts. A similar bronze figure of a bodhisattva, also retaining
the mandorla and lotus pedestal base, attributed to the Wuyue Kingdom, is now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, acc. no., 25.217.3 (fig. 1), and illustrated in Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist
and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010. As discussed in ibid., p. 110, the ovoid form of the
mandorla and its openwork design was an element particular to the 9th and 10th centuries, and the modeling of the garments was
typical of Zhejiang sculpture. Another closely related gilt-bronze figure depicting the same bodhisattva as the present lot, with a
similar lotus pedestal base, also lacking the attribute and mandorla, is now in the Harvard Art Museums, Bequest of Hervey E.
Wetzel, acc. no. 1919.105 (fig. 2), also attributed to the Wuyue Kingdom. Compare as well a similar gilt-bronze figure of a
bodhisattva, previously in the Minkenhof and Hart collections, with similar casting of the coiffure, face, distinctive sleeves, hands,
and asana, lacking the base and mandorla whilst retaining its attribute, published in Hugo Munsterburg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes,
Tokyo, 1967, pl. 82, and once exhibited in Ancient Chinese bronze vessels, gilt bronzes and sculptures; two private collections, one
formerly part of the Minkenhof collection, Eskenazi, London, 1977, cat. no. 29.

Another closely related bronze figure of a Buddha, with the mandorla but lacking the lotus pedestal base, is illustrated in Saburo
Matsubara, History of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1961, pl. 1982b, and was sold at Christie's New York, 14th September
2017, lot 838. Consider a bronze figure with similar characteristics but gilt-lacquered, lacking the mandorla and stand, attributed
to the Song period, sold in these rooms 6th November 1981, lot 45, and again in our Hong Kong rooms as property from the
collection of Dr. Ip Yee, 19th November 1984, lot 16. Finally, consider a bronze figure of Samantabhadra, with similar upward-swept
sleeves, coiffure, and hand positioning, attributed to the Song dynasty, once in the collections of Sato Gengen
and Sakamoto Gorō, respectively, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th October 2016, lot 3222.

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