Page 27 - Contenplating the Divie Buddhist Art Christies Hong Kong

fall asymmetrically, with the result that the floral emblem The closest counterparts to this magnificent bodhisattva
appears in front of the left leg rather than between the legs (as are the previously mentioned Standing Guanyin in the
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would the chain of a figure with weight equally distributed on Metropolitan Museum (12.161) and the stylistically related
both legs). This new, innovate approach breaks free from the Standing Bodhisattva in the Eisei Bunko Museum, Tokyo 東
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symmetrical presentations of earlier eras and anticipates the 京永青文庫 as well as the two virtually identical Standing
new Tang style that soon would come into play. The influence Guanyin sculptures belonging to Harvard University, one
of this new style is evident in the asymmetrical disposition of in the Harvard Art Museums (accession number 1950.155)
the chain of pearls worn by an early Tang Standing Guanyin and the other in the Bernard Berenson collection at the
in a Japanese private collection. 8 Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian
Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy. Lacking the slight
With its lapping tongues of flame, the magnificent openwork S-curve posture and subtle C-curve pose, the Metropolitan
halo that accompanies this bodhisattva radiates energy as Museum bodhisattva is symmetrically composed, its weight
well as light, and its complexity stands as a foil to the serene equally distributed on both legs, and thus presumably is a
bodhisattva whose head and shoulders it frames. The halos little earlier than the present sculpture, but the openwork
and mandorlas, or full-body halos, of earlier periods were halo is very closely related. The two Harvard sculptures have
solid, their embellishment of lotus blossoms and tongues solid halos with integrally cast surface embellishment, but
of flame either incised or integrally cast. With the growing their slight S-curve postures and subtle C-curve poses are
taste for openwork, some Sui-dynasty reticulated halos stronger than those of either the present bodhisattva or the
Metropolitan Museum one. Although it has lost its halo, the
feature symmetrically composed floral arabesques, such as Eisei Bunko sculpture displays the gentle S-curve and the
that of the Standing Guanyin in the Tokyo National Museum decidedly asymmetrically disposed chain of pearls that, like
東京國立博物館 or the closely related one in the MOA the present sculpture, foreshadows the new styles to be
Museum in Atami, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan (MOA 美術 explored and developed in the Tang.
館 / 岡田茂吉美術館 , 靜岡県熱海市 ); others, like the present
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sculpture and the related one in the Metropolitan Museum All of these sculptures are masterworks of Buddhist
(12.161), however, reveal a dynamism that foreshadows the sculpture and well represent the important artistic
naturalistic, lively styles that Tang sculptors will explore, innovations, even transformations, that were occurring
develop, and master. Although they employ the lotus during the Sui dynasty and that, because of their influence
on Tang sculpture, would alter the entire course of later
blossom and tongues of flame that are standard features of Chinese Buddhist sculpture.
Buddhist halos, both the Metropolitan Museum sculpture
and the present one add openwork “spokes” that radiate
from the lotus blossom presented en face directly behind
the bodhisattva’s head, that increase the implied energy, and
that symbolize the Wheel of the Law 法輪 , a reference to the
Buddha’s teachings.

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