Page 40 - September 23 to 24 Important Chinese Art Christie's NYC

PROPERTY FROM THE JUNKUNC COLLECTION

714
A VERY RARE MARBLE FIGURE OF A SEATED PENSIVE BODHISATTVA
NORTHERN QI DYNASTY (AD 550-577), DATED BY INSCRIPTION TO 553
The figure is shown seated on a lotus-form seat in a pensive pose with the right leg crossed over the left
knee, the head backed by a circular mandorla. The figure is raised on a rectangular platform, carved on the
front with two leonine beasts flanking an attendant, and on the reverse with a dedicatory inscription dated
to the fourteenth day of the eleventh month, of the fourth year of Tianbao, corresponding to 553. Traces of
painted figures, possibly a lady and officials, flank the inscription.
18Ω in. (46.8 cm.) high

$250,000-350,000
PROVENANCE:
Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978) Collection.
A related white marble figure in the Palace Museum, Beijing, shown seated in a similar pose on a
large rectangular block plinth, but of smaller size (16 ¼ in. high), is illustrated by Wan-go Weng and
Yang Boda, The Palace Museum: Peking, Treasures of the Forbidden City, New York, 1982, p. 236, no.
131, where the figure is identified as Sakyamuni in meditation. The Palace figure, which is dated by
inscription to 540, and the present figure both have long oval faces and slender waists, and have similar
notched edges accenting the drapery on the shoulders. The Palace figure, however, holds in his right
hand a lotus pod that rests against the halo behind the head, as do two ribbons that extend upwards
from his headdress; the two ribbons of the headdress of the present figure, by contrast, fall gracefully
behind the head and onto the shoulders. Another noteworthy difference is that the block plinth of the
Palace figure is completely undecorated, while the plinth of the present figure is carved in relief with
a pair of lions flanking a figure supporting a bud-shaped censer. A comparable depiction of two lions
flanking a figure supporting a censer can be seen on the block plinth of a marble figure of seated
pensive bodhisattva flanked by a pair of smaller, standing bodhisattvas. Illustrated by O. Sirén in Chinese
Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vol. II, Bangkok, 1998 ed., pl. 244A, the figure is dated
by inscription to 558.

瓊肯珍藏
北齊天保四年(553年) 石雕思惟菩薩坐像
銘文：天保四年十一月十四日佛弟子劉名顯兄弟二人願一切眾生往生西方無量壽□所求如願促心
來源:
史蒂芬‧瓊肯三世 (1978年逝) 珍藏。

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