Page 161 - 2018 Hong Kong Important Chieese Art

The artists working in the imperial workshops during the least ten imperial gilt-bronze examples remaining in published
Yongle period remain anonymous, but their sculptures have collections, including one formerly in the Usher P. Coolidge
now become recognised as among the most important works Collection, see Heather Karmay, Early Sino-Tibetan Art, op.
of art from the Buddhist world, characterised by faultless cit., p. 88, pl. 56; one in the Art Institute of Chicago, see Ulrich
casting and rich gilding. Some fifty-four gilt bronzes bearing von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p. 517,
the inscription Da Ming Yongle nian shi (bestowed in the Yongle pl. 144D; one in the Chang Foundation, see James Spencer,
era of the great Ming) have been documented in Tibetan Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Taipei, 1993, p. 111, pl. 48; two
monastery collections, see Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist in the Berti Aschmann Foundation at the Rietberg Museum,
Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, vol. II, pp. 1237-1291. see Helmut Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment, Zurich, 1995,
These works have survived in Tibet largely due to imperial pp. 146-148, nos 92-93; two in Tibetan monastery collections,
patronage lavished on Tibetan hierarchs and monasteries see Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculpture in Tibet, op. cit.,
during the reign of Zhu Di, who pursued a bountiful relationship pp. 1276-8, pls 356C-356F; one in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
with Tibetan religious leaders during his reign as Yongle Splendours from the Yongle (1403-1424) and Xuande (1426-
(Perpetual Happiness) Emperor. 1435) Reigns of China’s Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2010, p. 247,
pl. 120; and the Speelman Tara, see one in these rooms, 7th
The stylistic origin of Yongle gilt bronzes can be traced to the
October 2006, lot 806. For recently sold examples at auction,
Yuan dynasty, when the court espoused Tibetan Buddhism.
see the Tara from the Tamashige Tibet collection, included
Early fourteenth century woodblocks made for the monastery
in the exhibition The World of Mandala—Tamashige Tibet
of Yangshen Yuan, Hangzhou, are evidence of a new style
Collection, Okura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2005, and sold in our
appearing in Chinese Buddhist art, see Heather Karmay, Early
New York rooms, 19th March 2014, lot 86.
Sino-Tibetan Art, Warminster, 1975, pp. 47-50, pls 26, 29 and
30. The gently smiling faces, full rounded figures and tiered As testimony to the variety and originality found in Yongle
thrones in these woodblock prints reflect the Newar styles sculpture, many of these bronze figures of Tara are markedly
favoured in Tibet, and introduced into China by Nepalese different from one another while remaining faithful to standard
artists such as Aniko. Indeed these illustrations could almost stylistic requirements of the Yongle ateliers. Some are willowy
have been used as templates for Yongle bronzes such as the and ethereal in appearance like the present example, which
Speelman enthroned Buddha, see Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7th is stylistically similar to the Speelman Tara and the Tara
October 2006, lot 808, and the similar example in the British in the Palace Museum, Beijing; the larger of the two in the
Museum, see Wladimir Zwalf, Buddhism, Art and Faith, London, Aschmann collection is more austere, while the Tara formerly
1985, cat. no. 305, frontispiece. in the Coolidge collection has a charmingly rounded figure.
All however are finished and gilded to perfection, all with the
Tara, Mother of the Victorious Ones, is worshipped by
Yongle hallmark style of jewellery and lotus pedestal. The
Buddhists as a saviour and liberator from samsara, the
current Tara is imbued with a lightness and delicacy as befits
earthly realm of birth and rebirth. In Tibetan mythology the
goddess is believed to have emerged from a lotus bud rising the sensuous and youthful female form of the goddess. Her
hands are held in gentle and expressive gestures of charity and
from a lake of tears shed for the suffering of sentient beings
reassurance. And the compassion that Tara is said to have for
by the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, with a face “embodying
all sentient beings is expressed in the sublime countenance of
the delicacy of a million lotus blossoms”, see Glenn Mullin,
Mystical Verses of a Dalai Lama, New Delhi, 2003, p. 57. As in this exquisite Yongle bronze.
Tibet, the cult of Tara was popular at the Yongle court, with at

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