Page 120 - Christie's Irving Collection Lacquer Bronse jade and Ink March 2019

I
L A C Q U E R • J A D E • B R O N Z E • I N K T H E R V I N G C O L L E C T I O N 髹金飾玉 - 歐雲伉儷珍藏

He holds his right hand, raised to chest height, in the vitarka-
mudra, in which the tips of thumb and index fnger touch

to form a circle; this mudra emblemizes both intellectual
discussion and the transmission of the Buddha’s teachings.

reference for an icon associated with members of a ruling the Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore (See https://
family. (Adapted from Denise Patry Leidy, Donna Strahan, www.buddhistdoor.net/features/the-new-ancient-religions-
et al., Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist gallery-at-the-asian-civilisations-museum-singapore). To
Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: The wit, the matted hair piled high on the head and bound
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010, pp. 136-38, no. 32.) together with cords in a jatamukuta, the proportionally
large image of the Buddha Amitabha set at the base of the
Fashioned in gold and backed by an elaborate, openwork jatamukuta, the slender body with a torque embellishing
mandorla, the eighth- or ninth-century Acuoye Guanyin the neck, the scarf tied at either hip and looping below
discovered in 1978 inside the Qianxun Pagoda at the the waist, and the subtle drapery folds that delicately fow
Chongsheng Temple, Dali, Yunnan province, is both the over the legs all suggest possible infuence from Champa,
earliest and the most prominent example of the tutelary in present-day central Vietnam, on the sculpture of the
deity of the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms. (see: Leidy and Dali Kingdom. (See Albert Lutz and Angela Falco Howard,
Strahan, Wisdom Embodied, p. 136, fg. 99) This efigy Der Goldschatz der drei Pagoden: Buddhistische Kunst des
of Guanyin, which was replicated through successive Nanzhao- und Dali-Konigreichs in Yunnan, China, 1st ed.,
dynasties, is the model from which derive the several related Zurich: Museum Rietberg, 1991, pp. 68-74)
twelfth-century sculptures including the present example.
(See Angela F. Howard, “Buddhist Monuments of Yunnan: Sculptures of the Acuoye Guanyin are dated to the second
Eclectic Art of a Frontier Kingdom” in Maxwell Hearn half of the twelfth century on the basis of their similarity to
and Judith G. Smith, eds., Arts of Song and Yuan: Papers a sculpture in the collection of the San Diego Museum of
Prepared for an International Symposium, New York: The Art (1941.83) that bears an inscription that dates it between
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996, pp. 231-45) 1147 and 1172. That date is further confrmed by the striking
resemblance of such sculptures to a golden image depicted
This fgure’s slender body, elongated proportions, and in the so-called Long Scroll of Buddhist Images (See pp.
distinctive facial features are typical of Dali-Kingdom 110–111 and Fig. 1) painted between 1172 and 1190 by Zhang
sculptures, as are the torque, the long earrings that rest Shengwen (active 1163–1189) and now in the collection
on the shoulders, and the arrangement of the hair in an of the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (See Leidy and
Indian-style jatamukuta. Those features not only distinguish Strahan, Wisdom Embodied, p. 136, fg. 98)
such images from sculptures produced in Song-dynasty
China but closely link them to sculptures created in India Closely related sculptures of the Acuoye Guanyin appear
and Southeast Asia. In fact, the slender body, clinging in a number of collections in both Asia and the West,
drapery, and fashioning of the hair in a jatamukuta fnd including the Yunnan Provincial Museum, Kunming; The
parallels in such Buddhist and Hindu sculptures from Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (42.25.28); Freer
Indonesia as three seventh-to-ninth-century bronzes in Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (F1946.10a-b); Asian Art
the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Museum, San Francisco (B60S34); San Diego Museum of
Fig. 1 An image of Acuoye
York: 2004.556, 1987.142.160, and 1987.218.15. Apart from Art (1941.83); Brooklyn Museum; National Palace Museum,
Guanyin shown in Scroll of
possible relationships with Indonesian sculptures, elements Taipei; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Musée Buddhist Images, by Zhang
Shengwen (active 1163–1189),
of the Acuoye Guanyin bear a striking resemblance to those Guimet, Paris; and Sumitomo Collection in the Sen-oku Dali Kingdom (AD 937-1253).
of a ninth-century, sheet gold and electrum sculpture of Museum in Kyoto, Japan. © The Collection of National
Palace Museum
an Avalokiteshvara from Champa now in the collection of
Robert D. Mowry 圖一 大理國（937-1253）張勝溫
（活躍於1163–1189）
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus,
《大理國描工張勝溫畫梵像》
Harvard Art Museums, and 中的阿嵯耶觀音像。
Senior Consultant, Christie’s 國立故宮博物院藏

118 P A R T I