Page 101 - Sotheby's Junkunc Collection March 2019

Unlike the sculptures at Longmen, the present figure was conceived and carved in the round. Free
standing sculptures from this period are rare, and even rarer are those of this exceptional quality and
carved from marble. Furthermore, extant examples of Tang free-standing marble sculptures stylistically
appear to belong to a later phase of development; a very large marble torso excavated in Xi’an, is
illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji. Diaosu bian [The complete series on Chinese art. Sculpture], vol.
4, Beijing, 1988, pl. 53; a smaller torso in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansans City, was included in
the exhibition Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from the Wei Through the T’ang Dynasties, National Museum
of History, Taipei, 1983, cat. no. 28; another in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is published on the
museum’s website, acc. no. 07.10; and a fourth from the collection of Evelyn Annenberg Hall, sold at
Christie’s New York, 29th March 2006, lot 182. A kneeling marble bodhisattva in the Shanghai Museum,
Shanghai, is illustrated in Ancient Chinese Sculpture Gallery, Shanghai, 2000, p. 25, two large marble
esoteric figures, part of a group of ten sculptures excavated in 1959 and probably from the Anguo Temple
in Chang’an, are illustrated in Angela Falco Howard et al., Chinese Sculpture, New Haven, 2006, pls 3.121
and 3.122; and another in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acc. no. 12.63.

While no closely related example appears to have been published, this figure bears some similarities to
two wood sculptures of bodhisattva: one in the Todaiji temple complex in Nara, illustrated in Matsubara
Saburō, Chūgoku bukkyō chōkoku shiron / The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1995, vol. III, pl.
634, and the other in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, illustrated in Hai-wai yi-chen / Chinese Art
in Overseas Collections. Buddhist Sculpture, vol. II, Taipei, 1990, pl. 126.

It was under the Tang dynasty that Buddhism reached its most flourishing phase. The years of
cultural and social division that accompanied dynastic changes from the fall of the Han through the
establishment of the Sui and Tang dynasties, gradually led to the rise of Pure Land Buddhism. Centered
around the devotion of Amithaba, or a bodhisattva, this doctrine allowed devotees to be reborn in
Sukhavati, the Western Paradise. Consequently, images of Amithaba and of bodhisattva proliferated in
this period, especially those of Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of Compassion and Mercy, who was not
prominent in early Indian Buddhism but acquired multiple manifestations already in the 6th century.
The present figure appears to depict one of such manifestation, recognizable from the depictions of
meditating Amithaba on the crown, and the jar held in the right hand.

然此像為獨立全身像，與龍門石窟之浮雕不同。其時 雖未見與本像相似之大理石觀音立像見諸出版，然可
獨立雕像已為少見，此像雕工卓絕，大理石作，尤為 比較兩相近木雕例，其一藏奈良東大寺，載於松原
珍罕。唐代此類大理石作獨立佛像，多屬後期發展風 三郎，《中國仏教彫刻史論》，東京，1995年，卷3
格。可參考一大理石佛身殘像，出土於西安，載於《 ，圖版634。其二藏克利夫蘭美術館，載於《海外遺
中國美術全集·雕塑編》，卷4，北京，1988年，圖 珍·佛像》，卷2，臺北，1990年，圖版126。
版53；納爾遜-阿特金斯藝術館亦藏一較小殘件，展
並錄於《中國古代石雕藝術》，國立歷史博物館，臺 唐代為佛教鼎盛時期。漢末至南北朝割據分裂不斷，
北，1983年，編號28；波士頓美術館亦藏一例，見 隋唐一統中原，結束戰亂，而後佛教淨土宗日漸興
於博物館網站，藏品編號07.10。第四例為 Evelyn 盛。淨土宗專修阿彌陀佛淨土之法門，又以菩薩為
Annenberg Hall 舊藏，售於紐約佳士得2006年3 尊，眾生皆可修行，以登西方極樂，免受輪回之苦。
月29日，編號182。上海博物館藏一大理石菩薩跪 阿彌陀佛與菩薩造像因而廣為流傳，觀音尤甚。觀音
像，刊於《中國古代雕塑館》，上海，2000年，頁 慈悲為懷，普渡眾生，六世紀時已見多種形象，本像
25。1959年西安出土密宗造像十件，或原為長安安 即為其中典型形象之一。
國寺所存，其中兩例錄於 Angela Falco Howard 編
《Chinese Sculpture》，紐黑文，2006年，圖版
3.121及3.122；另一例藏波士頓美術館，見於博物館
網站，藏品編號12.63。

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