Page 182 - 2019 October Important Chinese Art Sotheby's Hong Kong

fig. 1
Kashmiri-style bronze figure of Shakyamuni, Qing dynasty,
Qianlong period
Qing court collection
© Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
圖一
清乾隆 局部飾金銅喀什米爾式釋迦牟尼佛坐像
清宮舊藏
© 北京故宮博物院藏

This magnificent and impressively large figure of (1745), the 7th Dalai Lama presented it to the Qianlong
Shakyamuni Buddha, depicted at the moment of his Emperor, and on the 20th day of the 10th month it was
first sermon after enlightenment, is likely to have been placed inside the newly renovated Yonghegong Temple, and
commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor in homage of a that later on it was copied at the Palace Workshops.
treasured 7th-8th century Kashmiri bronze figure housed in A Qianlong period Kashmiri-style bronze figure of
the Yonghegong. Boldly created in repoussé technique, the Shakyamuni from the Qing court collection, preserved in
partial gilding of a brilliant tone, with powerfully conceived the Palace Museum, Beijing was created in the style of
folds in the robes an exaggeration of the prototype, it is a the Yonghegong sculpture and placed on a reign-marked
superb example of Imperial metalwork, and far larger in stand. See Classics of the Forbidden City. Tibetan Buddhist
size than another Qianlong mark and period example still Sculptures, Beijing, 2012, no. 63 (fig. 1). A comparison
preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing.
between the two shows just how faithfully the iconography
In the Qianlong era, where there was considerable on early figures was copied, differing only in terms of the
interchange between high lamas and the Imperial court, larger size of the Qianlong example, and the sharper casting
a number of rare early sculptures from Tibetan monastic and more pointed details on the face and robes.
collections was brought to Beijing by high lamas and The current sculpture is very closely related in form, style
bestowed on the emperor. Those that he particularly and iconography, suggesting that it emanates from the
appreciated he ordered the Palace Workshops to make high same workshop. At 74 cm high, it was created on a much
quality copies. Foremost among these is the famous Kashmir grander scale than the Palace Museum example, which still
figure in the Yonghegong, illustrated in Buddhist Statues retaining its original base, is only 69 cm high. It is however
in Yonghegong, Beijing, 2001, pl. 40, which has a Qing gilt- nearly identical, strongly pointing to it being an Imperial
lacquered stand and prabha mandorla, inscribed in Manchu, commission in the same period, which would probably
Mongolian, Chinese and Tibetan, stating that on the 22nd originally have had a stand with similar iconography and
day of the 2nd month of the 10th year of the Qianlong period
Qianlong reign mark to the one still in Beijing.