Page 138 - Bonhams Chinese & Asian Works of Art Los Angelis December 14 2020

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A WOOD SCULPTURE OF A HEAVENLY MUSICIAN
Muromachi period (1333-1573), 15th/16th century
Decorated in polychrome pigments, ink, and gesso over wood, the The Kondo (Golden Hall) of Horyuji Temple near Nara, Japan’s
figure carved from a single block, shown squating on a lotus platform ancient capital, houses three important statues: the Shaka Triad, the
holding a drum, framed by an elaborate floral nimbus, the lotus petals Yakushi Nyorai, and the Amida Buddha, each of them placed under
of the pedestal each individually carved and inserted into the core, the an elaborate jeweled canopy with tennin (Sanskrit: apsara, celestial
nimbus carved from a single sheet of wood musicians) attached to its rim. This figure appears to be a later copy
6 3/4in (17.1cm) high, figure only; 22 1/4in (56.5cm) high overall of one of the musicians associated with the Horyuji group, possibly
carved as a replacement for those which were lost in a fire in 670. For
$6,000 - 8,000 a similar example from the Horyuji group now in the collection of the
Cleveland Museum of Art, see Mayuyama Junkichi, ed., Japanese Art
in the West, Tokyo, Mayuyama, 1966, no. 1; and for another example
still in the collection of Horyuji Temple, see Kurata Bunsaku, Horyu-ji:
Temple of the Exalted Law, Early Buddhist Art from Japan, New York:
Japan Society, 1981, cat. no. 12.

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