Page 34 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022

涅槃寂静 | THE COLLECTION OF DAVID AND NAYDA UTTERBERG (LOTs 1-20)

6
ANONYMOUS (JAPAN, 14TH CENTURY)
Amida Nyorai (Amitabha) in Welcoming Descent with the
Boddhisattvas Kannon and Seishi
Hanging scroll; silk embroidery and human hair
23 x 11¡ in. (58.4 x 28.9 cm.)
$100,000-150,000
刺繍阿弥陀三尊来迎図

PROVENANCE:
Kokon, Inc., New York, 21 Jan. 2001

In the Kamakura period, practices focused on attaining birth in
the Buddha Amida’s Western Paradise became widespread, and
many small embroideries like this one were produced for intimate,
individual devotional practice and deathbed ritual. Small in scale,
they were intended for a personal altar. Amida descends to welcome
the deceased, accompanied by the bodhisattvas Kannon and Seishi.
The needleworker substituted human hair for silk thread in places,
a practice common in scrolls used during ceremonies following
the death of a devotee, when prayers were offered for safe birth in
Amida’s Pure Land.

Two similar embroidered Amida triads, dated to the thirteenth
century, are in the Mary Griggs Burke Collection at the
Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Harry G. C. Packard
Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In
both, however, the deities are shown not in human form, but
as sacred Sanskrit seed syllables, against a solidly worked blue
background. Both are faded and worn, as in the Utterberg example,
and have considerable restoration.

Amida Triad in the Form of Sacred Sanskrit Syllables.
Japan. Kamakura period, 13th century.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Harry
G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art. 1975, 1975.268.22