Page 136 - Christie's Important Chinese Art, March 23 to 24 2023 New York

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTOR
1130
A RARE AND SUPERBLY CAST GILT-BRONZE GUARDIAN 美४私́珍藏
FIGURE 明ǎ十Ս 十ˑˠ紀ǎ銅鎏金天王像
MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY
Ϝ源
12q in. (31.8 cm.) high, composite stand 紐☼蘇富比
年 月 日
拍品編號
$150,000-250,000
PROVENANCE:
Sotheby's New York, 28 February 1980, lot 4.

This exceptionally finely-cast gilt-bronze figure is reminiscent of the finest Another gilt-bronze guardian figure of similar size (12q in. high), dated to the
craftsmanship of the Ming dynasty, and may represent one of the Four 17th century, but shown seated, formerly in the Robert Hatfield Ellsworth
Guardian Kings, sworn to protect Buddhism eternally. These figures were Collection, and was in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is
traditionally placed at the cardinal points of the compass in Buddhist illustrated by Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan in Wisdom Embodied:
temples to protect Buddhist deities. The exact identification of this figure is Chinese and Daoist Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
difficult, as it may have originally held an attribute which is now missing. 2010, p. 184, no. A63. (Fig. 2). See also a similar figure sold at Sotheby’s
Paris, 11 June 2019, lot 29 (one of two) and another figure with hands in a
A larger (21 in. high) gilt-bronze standing figure, identified as Weituo, and similar gesture as the present figure sold at Sotheby’s New York, 17 March
dated to the Ming dynasty, 16th-17th century, was sold at Christie’s New 2021, lot 253.
York, 24 March 2011, lot 1632. (Fig. 1) This present figure is wearing similar
chain-mail armor and helmet and has similar celestial carves and billowing
ribbons. The figure differs from the present figure mainly in its hand gesture,
which is in anjalimudra, a defining feature of Weituo.

Far Left:
Fig 1. A large and finely cast gilt-bronze
standing figure of Weituo, Ming dynasty,
16th-17th century, sold at Christie’s New
York, 24 March 2011, lot 1632.
銅鎏金韋馱⒤像
明十Ս 十ˑˠ紀
於紐☼ω
ૈ得拍賣
年 月 日
拍品編號
Left:
Fig 2. Guardian, probably a lokapala
(Tianwang), Ming dynasty, early 17th
century. Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Purchase, The Vincent Astor Foundation
Gift, 2002, 2002.254.
黃銅鎏金天王像
明十ˑˠ紀׀
૯都會藝術
博ḵ館藏
7JODFOU "TUPS基金會捐㈌
年
館藏編號