Page 55 - March 17, 2020 Impotant Chinese Art, Sotheby's, New York

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF
ALLEN O. BATTLE, PH.D

LOTS 170-184

Allen O. Battle 醫生 收藏 拍品編號 170-184

170
A RARE PARTIALLY COLD-GILT BRONZE class - father tantras (yang), Supreme yoga class - mother
FIGURE OF MULTI-ARMED MANJUSHRI tantra (yin), yoga class, Caryayoga - action-ritual class, and
QIANLONG MARK AND PERIOD Kriyayoga - devotion class. It is recorded that 787 images
were enshrined in the Fanhualou and 732 images in the
seated atop a lotus pedestal, the principal right hand held in Baoxianglou. Today, only the Fanhualou retains its collection
karana mudra, with the left holding a ghanta, two additional of images.
pairs of arms fanning out around the body, the hands A similar representation of Manjushri was originally held in
bearing attributes including a sword, vajra, and ghanta the Baoxianglou and is illustrated in Walter Eugene Clark
wearing a dhoti with chased ‘brocade’ borders, a fluttering (ed.), Two Lamaistic Pantheons, New York, reprinted 1965,
scarf and ornate jewelry, the three faces each framed pl. 53, no. 2A 25. Another similar figure placed in Fanhualou
by a three-leafed crown encircling a multi-tiered topknot is published in Fanhualou cangbao - Foxiang / Statues in the
surmounted by a flaming jewel, the deity’s skin cold-gilded, Sanctuary of Buddhist Essence), vol. 1, Beijing, 2013, pl. 169.
the hair and facial features detailed in pigments, the front of Related figures have sold at Christie’s New York, 22nd March
the lotus pedestal cast with a horizontal reign mark Da Qing 2007, lot 215, and 15th September 2011, lot 1376; in our
Qianlong Nian Jing Zao, incised below with Wenshu pusa London rooms, 4th November 2009, lot 215; and in these
(Manjushri bodhisattva); the back of the pedestal incised rooms, 17th-18th March 2015, lot 376, and 16th March 2016,
with Wushang yangti genben (Supreme yoga father tantra lot 371.
class) Baron Alexander von Staël-Holstein (1876-1937) was
Height 6½ in., 16.7 cm
born in Estonia, and studied Sanskrit and Indian literature
PROVENANCE at the University of Tartu and then in Germany. He was
Collection of Baron Alexander von Staël-Holstein (1876- employed by the diplomatic service between 1903–04, held
professorial positions at the University of St. Petersburg and
1937). the National University of Beijing where he settled following
Mathias Komor, New York, 29th November 1950. the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. During his time in Beijing,
Collection of Dr. Allen O. Battle, Ph.D (1927-2020).
Staël-Holstein established and became director of the
The Qianlong Emperor was a devout Buddhist and a keen Institute for Research in Sino-Indian Relations in connection
follower of Tibetan Lamaist teachings. He had bronze figures with Harvard University. He amassed a substantial collection
of the Tibetan Buddhist Pantheon made in the imperial of several hundred lamaistic statues and paintings.
workshops to be enshrined in eight Buddhist halls. These
halls were built in a style called liupinlou (six category halls), $ 60,000-80,000
because the figures enshrined in them were divided into six
categories. Four of these halls were built in the Forbidden
City, for example, the Baoxianglou and the Fanhualou; three 清乾隆 銅局部鎏金文殊菩薩坐像
were in Chengde; and one, the Fanxianglou, was in the 《大清乾隆年敬造》《文殊菩薩》
Summer Palace, then known as the Changchun Garden. 《無上陽體根本》款
The style of figures enshrined in these halls were based
on the style of the Ming dynasty favored by the Yongle
Emperor and derived from Nepalese and Mongolian models, 來源
highlighted with cold-gilding. Patricia Ann Berger, Empire of Alexander von Staël-Holstein 男爵 (1876-1937) 收藏
Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China, Mathias Komor，紐約，1950年11月29日
Honolulu, 2003, p. 107, translates the six categories as the Allen O. Battle 醫生 (1927-2020) 收藏
Prajnaparamita (Supreme wisdom) class, Supreme yoga

106 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N10644 107