Page 298 - 2018 Hong Kong Important Chieese Art

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AN INSCRIBED MINIATURE GILT-BRONZE 明洪武 鎏金銅袖珍釋迦牟尼佛坐像
FIGURE OF SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA 《洪武丙子四月吉日施》銘
MING DYNASTY, HONGWU PERIOD, DATED
1396 銘文：
周府欲報四恩命工鑄造如來佛相一樣五千四十八尊
depicted seated in vajraparyankasana on a lotus base raised on 俱用黃金鍍之。
a hexagonal plinth, the right hand held in bhumisparshamudra
and the left in dhyanamudra, wearing a pleated robe falling in 周府欲報四恩命工鑄造佛相一樣五千四十八尊俱用黃金鍍
loose folds over his legs, with the undergarment gathered just 之，所以廣陳供養崇敬如來吉祥如意者。
below the opened chest, the serene face with downcast eyes 洪武丙子四月吉日施。
and a meditative expression flanked by long pendulous ears,
the hair punched with tight curls centred by an ushnisha with 來源：
an ovoid jewel atop, incised on the reverse and around the Robert Bigler，紐約，2013年3月
pedestal with a long inscription dated Hongwu bingzi year (in
accordance with 1396) 出版：
5.6 cm, 2¼ in. Robert Bigler，《Art and Faith at the Crossroads》，蘇
黎世，2013年，編號26
PROVENANCE
Robert Bigler, New York, March 2013.
LITERATURE
Robert Bigler, Art and Faith at the Crossroads, Zurich, 2013,
cat. no. 26.

HK$ 150,000-200,000
US$ 19,200-25,500

This small and finely cast gilt-bronze figure is one of the
finest quality and best preserved of a group of small figures
of Shakyamuni which can be securely dated to 1396. They
relate to a larger standing gilt-bronze of Amitabha in the
British Museum, dated 1396, that demonstrates the stylistic
transition between the Yuan dynasty and later Ming bronzes.
See Wladimir Zwalf, ed., Buddhism: Art and Faith, London,
1985, p. 208, cat. no. 300. For other examples from the same
group as the current figure, see one illustrated in Gems of
Beijing Cultural Relics Series: Buddhist Statues I, Beijing, 2001-
2004, p. 73, pl. 34, and another sold at Christie’s New York,
18th/19th September 2014, lot 1023.
As translated in Robert Bigler, Art and Faith at the Crossroads,
Zurich, 2013, p. 72, the inscription reads that the present
figure was “commissioned by Zhou Fu to repay the Four
Kindnesses (of mother, father, Tathagata and the teaching
of the Doctrine)”. He instructed the craftsmen to cast a total
of 5048 gold images of Shakyamuni Buddha for the further
spreading of the Law on an auspicious day of the 4th month of
the bingzi year of Hongwu (1396).

296 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比