Page 186 - Irving Collection Part II Chinese Art

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L A C Q U E R • J A D E • B R O N Z E • I N K T H E R V I N G C O L L E C T I O N 髹金飾玉 - 歐雲伉儷珍藏

1225 A RARE PAINTED MARBLE SEATED FIGURE OF BUDDHA
CHINA, TANG-LIAO DYNASTY (AD 618-1125)

Shown seated in dhyanasana on a tall, waisted, square pedestal with
beaded column corners, the right hand resting on the knee and the left
hand raised, dressed in long robes and with the hair styled in whorl-shaped
curls, the center of the back with a rectangular indent for attachment to a
mandorla, retaining black, red and green pigment, and traces of gilding
18Ω in. (47 cm.) high
$70,000-90,000
PROVENANCE
The Irving Collection, no. 802, by 1980.

The heaviness of the face and square jaw line seen on the present
fgure is characteristic of sculpture dating to the late Tang (AD 618-
907) to Liao dynasty (AD 916-1125). See, for example, a marble seated
fgure of Buddha dated to the late Tang-dynasty in the collection of The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where the fullness of the face
is particularly prominent, illustrated by Denise Patry Leidy and Donna
Strahan in Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven, 2010, p. 176, no. A28. A
Tang dynasty marble fgure of Buddha with comparable square-form face
and of the same size as the present fgure was sold at Christie’s, New
York, 18 March 2009, lot 359.
See, also, two larger seated fgures of Buddha, dated to the Liao dynasty,
from the collection of General Munthe, Beijing, illustrated by Osvald
Sirén in Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century,
vol. II, pls. 584 A and B. These two Liao dynasty fgures display a similar
treatment of the elaborate whorl-detailed curls seen on the hair of the
present fgure.

A stone fgure of Amitabha Buddha, dated by inscription to AD 720, with
columns carved around the pedestal in a manner similar to the present
sculpture was sold at Christie’s, New York, 17 March 2017, lot 1018.
唐/遼 彩繪大理石佛坐像

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