Page 135 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

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

Under the direct patronage of the foreign Tuoba royal family, which established the Northern Wei dynasty, Buddhism flourished in
China. In an effort to prove their legitimacy to the Chinese throne they enthusiastically supported Buddhism, sponsoring the
construction of temple grottoes and the making of Buddhist images. This piece is inscribed with a cyclical date corresponding to
478, corresponding to of Emperor Xiaowen’s reign (r. 471-499). The son of Emperor Xianwen, he was crowned Emperor at the age
of two under the regency of Grand Empress Dowager Feng. A gradual process of sinicization began under her rule, and accelerated
once Emperor Xiaowen consolidated power in the early 480s. They both encouraged Tuoba clan members to adopt Han culture,
forced the use of Chinese language and clothing, and later moved the capital to Luoyang, the former capital of the Eastern Han
dynasty.

The deliberate adoption of Han Chinese culture had a profound effect on the artistic expression of the period, as craftsmen began
to develop an independent Chinese style. This piece displays this gradual shift; the figure’s monastic robe clings to the body and
falls in symmetrical pleats in a manner reminiscent of Buddhist sculpture from Gandhara, however the use of abstraction in the
formalized linearity of the garment's folds and the idealization of the bodily form both indicate the development of a distinct
Chinese Buddhist visual mode which prioritizes the Buddha's exemplary spirituality over his human dimensions.
Gilt-bronze figures of this type, depicting the Buddha seated with the arms on the lap are unusual, although a similar figure also
dated 478, but with the robe covering both shoulders, in the Shanxi Provincial Museum, is illustrated in Matsubara
Saburō, Chūgoku bukkyō chōkoku shiron/The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1995, vol. I, pl. 66b, together with a
slightly smaller and more crudely made figure dated in accordance with 478, pl. 54d.

Portable figures of Buddhist deities from the reign of Emperor Xiaowen are discussed in the seminal paper by Matsubara Saburō,
ibid., vol. 1, p. 15, where he lists twenty dated examples, ranging from the 1st (477) year of Taihe to the 21st year (497) of the reign.
He analyses their form, content of their inscriptions and name of their donors, and suggests that Hebei province was the leading
production center for these figures, continuing its dominance from the previous century.

本像鎏金華美、鑄工精妙，屬北魏佛像珍品。其面容慈悲，作冥想姿態，佛袍厚重，見印度造像遺韻。

拓跋族建立北魏後大力支持佛教，令其得以蓬勃於中土，同時興建大型石窟及佛像，意在鞏固中原統治。本像署太和二年款，即魏獻文帝
之子孝文帝時期。北魏孝文帝，兩歲登基並由馮太后攝政，期間北魏開始漢化。孝文帝親政後，漢化更為迅速。馮太后及孝文帝皆命百姓
學習漢語、改穿漢服，全面改易漢俗，並遷都至東漢故都洛陽。

社會改易漢俗，藝術風格亦因而演變。本像佛袍貼近軀體，衣褶左右對稱垂下，隱有犍陀羅佛像風格。層疊衣袍則具抽象線條感，軀體不
仿人體比例，力求臻美造型以彰佛法善妙，此乃中式風格。
相類坐姿手勢之銅鎏金佛像頗為少見。可參考一例，亦紀太和二年，佛袍披雙肩，山西博物院藏，圖載於松原三郎，《中國仏教彫刻史
論》，東京，1995年，卷1，圖版 66b，同書另載一例，尺寸較小，工略遜於本品，紀太和二年，圖版54d。

松原三郎曾撰重要文章論述孝文帝年間佛像，前述出處，卷1，頁15，文章列舉二十尊紀年例，製於太和元年至二十一年間。作者對其佛
像造型、銘文及捐贈善信名號等加以研究分析，並推論河北應為此類佛像之重要產地。

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