Page 130 - Christie's Important Chinese Art, March 23 to 24 2023 New York

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
1128
A RARE LACQUERED AND PARCEL GILT WOOD FIGURE OF A 私́珍藏
SEATED ASCETIC 元 明ǎ局部漆金木雕ζঙ像
YUAN-MING DYNASTY (1279-1644)
Ϝ源
28 in. (71.1 cm.) high
戴潤齋
年 月 日
̯瑟g姆g㈃Գ勒
珍藏
$100,000-150,000 ̯瑟g姆g㈃Գ勒珍藏
哥і比̯૯學
̯瑟g姆g㈃Գ勒基金會
年
PROVENANCE:
J. T. Tai & Co. Inc., 12 December 1969. 展覽
Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987) Collections. 紐☼
哥і比̯૯學
年
Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Columbia University.
Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 2001.
EXHIBITED:
New York, Columbia University, 2002-2015.
Buddhist figures depicted with curly hair and beards are commonly The interior of the present figure was used to store consecratory materials.
associated with Yuan dynasty images of Shakyamuni. A Ming dynasty X-ray images show that the interior oval cavity of the figure contains at least
painting of Shakyamuni under the bodhi tree is in the Cleveland Museum four items: a disc-shaped object, which is likely a bronze mirror, a diamond-
of Art, illustrated by Wai-kam Ho, S. Lee, L. Sickman, and M. Wilson, Eight shaped object in the center of the chest, and two other objects. A wood
Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery- figure of Guanyin, dated to 1282 of the Yuan dynasty, in the collection of
Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, also containing consecratory materials
1980, pp. 274-275, cat. no. 210. The curly hair, beard, and downcast eyes of including a bronze mirror, is illustrated by D. Leidy and D. Strahan, Wisdom
Shakyamuni in the painting are very similar to those on the present figure. Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, 2010, cat. no. 35, pp. 143-44. Another figure in the
A similarly depicted gilt and lacquered wood figure of Shakyamuni as an Met’s collection has a circular depression in the cover of the consecratory
th
th
ascetic, dating to the late 13 -early 14 century, in the Detroit Institute of chamber indicating that it once held a mirror (see ibid., . 119, no. 24). The
Art, is illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections: shape of the depression on both nos. 24 and cat. no. 35 indicated that the
Buddhist Sculpture, Taipei, 1986, p. 171, no. 158. A standing marble figure of mirrors faced inward towards the front of the body. Leidy notes (p. 119),
a luohan, dated by inscription to 1180 of the Jin dynasty, with similar curly “the addition of mirrors to a Buddhist sculpture, such as this example, may
beard, mustache and brows, in the Avery Brundage Collection, is illustrated have been intended to enhance its spiritual potency as well as to protect it.
by d'Argencé, et al., Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture, Asian Art Moreover, it is possible that sculptures with mirrors in them were produced
Museum of San Francisco, 1974, pl. 138, and again in Chinese Art under the for use in specific, probably Esoteric, ceremonies.”
Mongols, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968, pl. 17.

(x-ray of interior)