Page 100 - September 20 2021 Chinese Works of Art Bonhams NYC

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF
JAMES AND MARILYNN ALSDORF
183
A PALE GREY LIMESTONE TORSO OF A BODHISATTVA The seated bodhisattvas in Cave 17 and in the other Tang caves seem
Tang dynasty, 8th century to lean forward with an easy grace, their heads and arms held at
Shown standing in subtle tribhanga pose with hands clasped various angles. The Buddhas sit impassively on their various supports,
prayerfully at the chest in namaskaramudra, the diaphanous dhoti their bulk emphasized by swaths of drapery that fall in natural weighty
worn rolled at the hips below the rounded belly and clinging in crisp folds across the surfaces. The Alsdorf bodhisattva on the proper left
curved folds on the legs; the head of a later date, carved with delicate side of the seated Buddha on the west wall also exudes a sense of
features and downcast eyes on a full-cheeked face, the hair pulled up natural, implied movement: his head leans slightly toward his right
into a tall coiled chignon behind a scrolled tiara with central jewel. side, the bracelets on his wrists falling at differing levels down his arms
31 5/8in (80.3cm) high, overall 23in (58.4cm) high, to the shoulder as he joins his hands together. His belly swells gently outward as he
breathes, his right hip slightly raised to support his weight. The same
$60,000 - 90,000 features are repeated in his companion standing on the proper right
side of the seated Buddha.
唐 八世紀 脅侍菩薩立像
When Siren photographed the figures in Cave 17, he saw a distinctive
Exhibited: Indian influence in their full forms and free positions of the figures.
On loan to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Certainly the sculpture of India did influence Chinese Buddhist
Massachusetts, 1935-1952 (845.1934) sculptors in earlier centuries. On the other hand, the Vanderstappen
and Rhie study listed above proposed a more immediate influence: the
Provenance: city of Taiyuan was honored with the title of Northern Capital in 690
Left Standing Bodhisattva, Tianlongshan Cave 17, West Wall and again in 732, suggesting patronage from circles closely connected
Benjamin W. Rowland, Jr. Cambridge, Massachusetts, December to the Tang imperial house (see The Sculpture of T’ien Lung Shan,’
1952 p. 216, footnote 129). Professor Angela Howard also noted that a
The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, prior to 1965 prominent patron with affluent taste must have commissioned such
sculptures, particularly of Caves 14, 17, 18 and 21. In fact she opined
Literature: that the vivid naturalism of their humanlike movement and dreamlike
Illustrated in situ by Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to expressions evoke more the atmosphere of figures in a court gathering
the Fourteenth Century [London, E. Benn, 1925], vol. IV, pl. 500; and than an assembly divine beings (see Angela Falco Howard [et al.],
1998 reprint, vol. 1, pl. 500, center right Chinese Sculpture [Yale University Press, 2006], p. 309.)
Harry Vanderstappen and Marylin Rhie, ‘The Sculpture of T’ien Lung
Shan: Reconstruction and Dating,’ Artibus Asiae, vol. 27, no. 3 (1965), Unfortunately the beauty of these sculptures was also their undoing.
pp. 189-237 discussed on p. 204 and illustrated as fig. 61 The recent Tianlongshan Caves Project listed above has plotted the
Illustrated in Tianlongshan Shiku, Beijing Foreign Language Press, process that ensued after the caves were discovered in the early
2003, nos. 179, 182 and 185 years of the 20th century: first the heads from various figures were
Illustrated in another historical photograph view of the Cave 17 removed, followed by a second wave when whole figures, hands and
west wall, second figure from the right, website for the University of relief carvings were cut from the walls. Some of the incomplete figures
Chicago, Center for the Art of East Asia, Tianlongshan Caves Project, were then offered for sale with replacement heads made at the time
Cave 17 in ‘Caves’ file (https://tls.uchicago.edu) that do not match the complete figures documented in the earlier
in situ photographs. In their 1965 study of the Tianlong sculptures,
展覽： Vanderstappen and Rhie listed a number of these separated figures in
1935-1952年於哈佛大學福格藝術博物館借展 their discussion of Cave 17. This includes the Alsdorf bodhisattva, the
disparity noticed between the head on the figure in 1965 as compared
來源： to an archival photo of the complete original figure (see ‘The Sculpture
山西省太原市天龍山石窟第17洞窟西牆 of T’ien Lung Shan,’ pp. 203-204; and p. 232, fig. 59 showing the
Benjamin W. Rowland, Jr. 麻省劍橋，1952年12月 Alsdorf bodhisattva in an in situ photograph; fig. 61, the figure with
阿爾斯多夫伉儷珍藏，1965年以前 replacement head in 1965). The 1965 photograph of the Alsdorf
bodhisattva, in turn, matches photos been taken after 2013 for the
著錄： Tianlongshan Caves Project, where the sculpture is identified as from
喜龍仁，Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century， the west wall of Cave 17, in a private collection and that the ‘head is
倫敦，1925年，第5卷，圖版500 not original’ (see in the photos section, Bodhisattva Standing PRV.
Harry Vanderstappen and Marylin Rhie, ‘The Sculpture of T’ien Lung UOC.511, height given as 66cm). The Tianlongshan Caves Project
Shan: Reconstruction and Dating,’ Artibus Asiae, 第27卷第3期，1965 also proposes that the original head for the Alsdorf bodhisattva is now
年，圖版61，頁189-237 in the collection of the Kosetsu Museum, Kobe (see in the photos
《天龍山石窟》，北京科學出版社，2003年，圖版179，182，185 section, Bodhisattva Head KMA.UNKNOWN.1, as 25.9cm high).
芝加哥大學天龍山項目網站17窟照片，https://tls.uchicago.edu
One final note to consider is the small scale of the Alsdorf bodhisattva
and the other sculptures originating from Cave 17. Vanderstappen and
The Buddhist cave temples of Tianlongshan are located to the Rhie recorded the measurements for the interior of Cave 17 as 8 feet
southwest of Taiyuan City in Shanxi Province. The recorded history in depth, 8 feet in width; 5 ¾ feet in height near the wall and 7 feet
on the caves is sparse; but the sculptures there have been dated by in height at the center. The Alsdorf bodhisattva is less than 3 feet in
comparison to known monuments from the sixth to the eighth century, height, while the seated bodhisattva in the Rietberg Museum, Zurich
extending from the Northern Wei through the Tang period. It was the - unusually well preserved to include the head and pendant left leg –
exquisite quality of the sculptural programs initiated there by unknown measures only 101cm (39 3/4in) in height (see Tianlongshan Caves
patrons during the first half of the eight century that drew scholars, Project, in photos section, Bodhisattva Seated RBM.RCh.146). That
photographers and despoilers to the mountain site in the opening these sculptures of comparatively small size manage to create such a
years of the twentieth century. monumental impression is a tribute to the genius of the Tang sculptors
who created them.

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