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377
A BRONZE FIGURE OF KSHITIGARBHA
CHINA, QING DYNASTY, 18TH-19TH CENTURY
19¬ in. (49.8 cm.) high

$70,000-90,000

The present work is part of a small group of nearly identical representations styles were common in every media of Chinese art from as early as the Song
of the bodhisattva, Kshitigarbha (in some cases, the bodhisattva has been dynasty (960-1279 CE); written sources explain how ritual bronzes from
misidentifed as Maitreya). Two examples are known from museum collections; the Shang dynasty (1700-1000 BCE), already objects of great age during
one, illustrated by C. Pascalis in La Collection Tibétaine, Hanoi, 1935, pl. 7, the Song dynasty, were imitated to meet the voracious demands of antique
resides in the National Museum of Vietnamese History (formerly the Musée collectors. This trend continued into the Qing dynasty, and was prevalent
Louis Finot) in Hanoi, having entered the collection at the turn of the twentieth in the area of Buddhist sculpture. Images gifted to the Qing emperors by
century. Another example is in the collection of the Museum voor Volkenkunde, Tibetan dignitaries still reside in the Qing Court Collection in Beijing, as do
Rotterdam, illustrated by H. Kreijger in Godenbeelden uit Tibet, Amsterdam, images cast in imitation of these earlier works. See, for example, a seventh or
1989, p. 40, fg. 20. Another example was sold at Christie’s New York, 23 June eighth century Kashmiri bronze fgure of Buddha, illustrated in Classics of the
1983, lot 420, and more recently, nearly identical bronzes were sold at Beijing Forbidden City: Tibetan Buddhist Sculptures, Beijing, 2009, p. 118, no. 53, and
Hanhai, 10 May 2014, lot 2182 and at Bonhams Hong Kong, 27 October 2018, an almost identical eighteenth century Chinese imitation of the same work,
lot 97. illustrated on ibid., p. 128, no. 63.
Stylistically, the work corresponds to Nepalese conventions from the early As molds were used for casting such images, often several examples could be
Malla period (circa 1201-1478), although the rich, dark metal, crisp casting cast before the mold deteriorated, perhaps explaining why there are several
details, and the lacquered face are all indicative of an eighteenth or nineteenth- known examples of the present work.
century Chinese Revival work. The concepts of archaism and revivals of earlier

A bronze fgure of Kshitigarbha
China, Qing Dynasty, 18th-19th century
Christie’s New York, 23 June 1983, lot 420