Page 131 - Fine Asian Works of Art December 19, 2016, SF

8202

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF HANNI FORRESTER

8201
TWO GILT BRONZE MINIATURE BODHISATTVAS
Northern Wei and Tang dynasties
Each possibly a remnant from larger shrine centered with a figure of the
Buddha: the Northern Wei figure standing with its elaborate draperies
billowing toward the right; the Tang example cast in a graceful
tribhanga pose as it stands on a lotus flower with later projecting pin.
3 7/8 and 3 1/8in (9.8 and 8cm) height of each figure

US$4,000 - 6,000

PROPERTY FROM ANOTHER OWNER

8202 As his most outstanding disciples, the youthful Ananda and the aged
A PAIR OF POLYCHROME LACQUERED WOOD FIGURES OF Kasyapa are the arhats (Ch: Luohan) generally depicted in attendance
KASYAPA AND ANANDA to the historical Sakyamuni Buddha, per convention extending back
Qing dynasty to at least the Tuoba Wei dynasty (see Rene-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argencé
The arhats depicted standing in individualized robes elaborately gilt et al, The Avery Brundage Collection, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
and colorfully enameled in scrolling cloud motifs, lotus blossoms, and Sculpture (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1974), 113). The identity
other repeating patterns; the elder Kasyapa depicted holding his arms of the two figures in the present lot are unmistakably but subtly
upright and concealed within looped sleeves below a ring clasp at his differentiated: note the prominent cheekbones and sunken cheeks of
left breast, the younger Ananda shown holding his arms in namaskara the elder Kasyapa versus the plumper, rounder face of Ananda.
mudra.
30in (76cm) high Li Song et al. in Chinese Sculpture (New York: Yale University Press,
2006), publish several prototypes in this medium dating back to the
US$8,000 - 12,000 Northern Song dynasty, many of which display tantalizing similarities to
this lot. For example, see the Yuan era figures in op. cit. no. 4.74-4.76
Provenance and a Ming group p. 426 pl. 4.65. However, Li notes that 'most of the
Christie's labels to reverse of both figures groups of... arhats still in existence belong to the Qing period' (p. 429).
Li cites Qianlong-era groups of arhats in the Biyun Temple of Beijing
as well as the colorful and stylized group in the Qiongzhu temple of
Yunnan province (ca 1891) as representative types.

FINE ASIAN WORKS OF ART AND PAINTINGS | 129