Page 146 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art 09/13/17

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PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK COLLECTION Finely carved with detailed armor and menacing guardian is depicted as a erce warrior, with eyes
faces, these four gures represent the Four wide open and muscular bodies visible through
A SET OF LARGE POLYCHROMED Guardian Kings (Sitian Wang) who are on earth their armor, while their celestial nature is shown
WOOD FIGURES OF THE FOUR to guard the four cardinal points of the world and by their owing scarves.
BUDDHIST GUARDIAN KINGS protect the Buddhist Law (dharma), according
MING DYNASTY to Buddhist philosophy. The four kings, who are Wood gures of Four Guardian Kings, carved with
believed to have been present at every critical full rounded faces and detailed armor as seen
each guardian gure seated on a naturalistic moment in Buddha’s life including his birth and on the present are rare. Compare a standing
rockwork base, deftly carved with stern his attainment of nirvana, were originally placed wood gure of a guardian, sold at Christie’s New
expressions and inset with enamel eyes, all on the four sides of stupas to guard the Buddhist York, 20th March 2014, lot 2061. See also four
below pierced crowns with lotus medallions relics inside. They include Virudhaka, ‘He who much larger painted stucco sculptures dressed
and scrollwork encircling a looped topknot, enlarges the kingdom’, the Guardian of the South; in a similar carved armor, from the Shuanglinsi
wearing chain-mail armor and layers of cinched Dhrtarastra, ‘He who maintains the kingdom of temple in Pingyao, Shanxi province, illustrated
and pleated fabrics, one arm raised to bear an the Law’, the Guardian of the East; Vaishravana, in situ in Shuanglinsi cai su foxiang [Buddhist
attribute (now lost), with traces of gesso and ‘He who is knowing’, the Guardian of the North, images of coloured stucco from Shuanglinsi],
polychrome pigments (4) and Virupaksha, ‘He who observes all things in Taipei, 1997, pp 33 and 35.
Height of tallest 44 in., 111.5 cm the kingdom’, the Guardian of the West. Each
$ 60,000-80,000

144 SOTHEBY’S