Page 136 - Sotheby's Arts of Asia Paris, June 16, 2022

143
PROPERTY FROM A FRENCH PRIVATE COLLECTION 清康熙 十七至十八世紀 鎏金銅阿彌陀佛立像
A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF AMITABHA 來源 :
BUDDHA 現藏家之父母於約1980年得
QING DYNASTY, KANGXI PERIOD, 17TH-18TH 後家族流傳至今
CENTURY
H. 53 cm, 20⅞ in.
PROVENANCE
Acquired by the parents of the present owner during the
1980s and thence by family descent.
Statue du Bouddha Amitabha en bronze doré, dynastie Qing,
époque Kangxi, XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle
40 000-60 000€

The Buddha of Infinite Light with his left hand raised and
holding the patra alms bowl, the right hand lowered in
the wish-granting gesture, varada mudra. The Buddha is
clothed in monk’s attire with an undergarment tied at the
waist and long flowing robe with finely incised floral borders
and standing upright in samapada on a waisted oval lotus
pedestal. The ancient symbol of svastika is engraved on the
chest as an auspicious Buddhist emblem. The long right
arm reaching to the knee represents one of the thirty-two
lakshana, the auspicious physical signs that distinguish the
Buddha. The long arm and open-handed gesture may also be
interpreted as reaching out to souls destined for Amitabha’s
Western Paradise, see W. Zwalf, ed., Buddhism:Art and Faith,
London, 1985, p. 209, cat. 302. The standing Amitabha
Buddha with right hand in varada mudra is associated with
Pure Land Buddhism, and the iconographic representation in
China remains virtually unchanged from at least the fifteenth
century, cf. an Amitabha in the British Museum dated 3rd
year of Chenghua, 1467, ibid. The engraved borders of the
robe and the style of the face are typical of Kangxi sculpture,
cf. the peaked hair line, large forehead, and relatively thin lips
on an imperial gilt bronze Avalokiteshvara, see The Complete
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Buddhist
Statues of Tibet, Hong Kong 2003, p. 237, cat. 226, and the
floral design on the robe of an inscribed Kangxi gilt bronze
Dipankara Buddha dated 1662, see Leidy and Strahan,
Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New Haven and
London, 2010, p. 23, fig. 27

Other view

134 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/PF2207