Page 137 - Fine Asian Works of Art December 19, 2016, SF

8216 8216 (side view)

8216 (side view) PROPERTY FROM VARIOUS OWNERS

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF A PROMINENT 8216
BAY AREA COLLECTOR A REPOUSSÉ GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA
8215 Incised Qianlong seven-character mark and of the period
A BRONZE FIGURE OF GUANYIN The figure constructed in sections, his right hand extended downward
Ming dynasty in the earth-touching gesture and his left hand resting on his legs
Posed seated with her right hand resting on her raised right knee and crossed in the posture of meditation, his long outer garment looped
her pendant left leg supported on a wave lapping at the base of her around his figure to expose the folds of his undergarment held in
stony seat, the lotus branches rising to the sides of both her arms place by a bow-tied sash at mid-chest level, the double-lotus pedestal
supporting a kalasha and a parrot. formed in two sections and inscribed in Tibetan on top front, the front
8 1/8in (20.5cm) high lower edges inscribed in Chinese regular script Da Qing Qianlong
US$1,000 - 1,500 nian jing zao at the center and Bao guang fo to the left, with further
inscriptions in Tibetan, Mongolian and Manchu, the base unsealed.
12in (30.5cm) high

US$15,000 - 25,000

The polyglot inscriptions on the present lot are perhaps indicative of
the role that Vajrayana Buddhism played for the court in consolidating
control over the Han, Manchu, Mongol and Tibetan subjects of the
Qing realm. In addition, the identification of this figure as specifically the
Bao guang fo belies an emphasis on iconographic accuracy that was
of paramount importance to the Qianlong Emperor. Patricia Berger
discusses both of these issues at length in her Empire of Emptiness:
Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China (University of Hawaii
Press, 2003), passim.

A repoussé gilt-bronze figure of similar size with the same incised
seven-character Qianlong mark and a similarly theologically precise
three-character inscription Miao xiang fo from a distinguished
European private collection was sold in our London, New Bond
Street sale 21354, 15 May 2014, lot 400. Other figures with the
same distinctive mode of dress, inscriptions in Chinese, Tibetan and
Mongolian have appeared in recent years, the most recent, an image
again very precisely identified as the Wei lan fo was sold at Sotheby's,
Sydney sale AU0807, 19 July 2016, lot 55, recorded as acquired in
Beijing, circa 1900.

A silver seated figure of Amitayus in the Palace Collection with the
same Qianlong mark and a notably similar lotus base is published in
Wang Jiapeng, ed., Zangchuan Fojiao Zaoxiang: Gugong Bowuyuan
Cang Wenwu Zhenpin Quanji [Buddhist Statues of Tibet: The
Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum] (Hong Kong:
The Commercial Press, 2008), 248, no. 237.

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