Page 104 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ARNOLD SCAASI AND PARKER LADD
1128
A RARE PAIR OF MONUMENTAL PAINTED STUCCO FIGURES OF BODHISATTVAS
YUAN-MING DYNASTY, 13TH-14TH CENTURY
Each fgure is a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, shown standing on a lotus base with head framed
within a halo and hands held before the body in amida mudra. One fgure wears a green scarf draped
over the shoulders and then looped over the forearms before trailing down the sides of a long, red skirt
with striped borders that is belted at the waist and tied around the hips with a scarf decorated with
fower sprigs. The other also wears a long, green celestial scarf as well as a red robe draped over the left
shoulder and worn over an ochre skirt with black and white striped borders, and each wears a pleated
green underskirt just visible above the feet, as well as bracelets and a foliate necklace that spans the
chest. The delicate facial features are set in a serene expression enhanced by the smooth, white pigment
of the skin and set of by the blue pigment of the hair which is worn in a topknot hidden behind the gilded
foliate crown centered with a fgure of Amitabha Buddha.
85 in. (2.16 m.) high, wood stands

(2)
$400,000-600,000

PROVENANCE
Christie’s New York, 18 September 1997, lot 301.
Similar types of fgures can be seen in a number of Buddhist temples of the Ming dynasty in Shanxi
province. In the Guanyin Hall and the Thousand Buddha Hall of the Shuanglin Temple in Pingyaoxian,
south of Taiyuan, large numbers of clay fgures of heavenly bodhisattvas adorn the walls. They are
dressed in robes whose details are strongly modeled to emphasize the thickness of the drapery folds
and the often unusual swirling and futtering patterns of hems and borders of the layered gowns,
sleeves, shawls, etc. Like the present pair they are painted predominantly in red and green pigments
with added relief decoration. The facial features are delicate and feminine, the hair arranged in two
curls at the front, above the large urna. Similar types of fgures can also be seen in the Zhenguo and
the Shuanglin Temples, also in Pingyaoxian: see The Research Institute of the Buddhism Culture of
China, Buddhist Sculpture of Shanxi Province, Hong Kong, 1991, pls. 11, 15, 18 and 172-180.
元/明 彩塑菩薩立像一對

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