Page 18 - Chinese Works of Art Bonhams Sept 2015

Emmanuel Gran in his New York apartment with lot 8002
8002
A FINE CAST BRONZE SEATED FIGURE OF GUANYIN
17th century
Her hair carefully combed and pinned in an elaborate coiffure fronted
by a figure of a seated Buddha as she turns toward her right while
seated in the posture of royal ease, her outer garment wound tightly
around her and the undergarment falling in wave-like folds at her feet;
the dark brown lacquered surfaces showing traces of gilt lacquer.
16 1/2in (42cm) high
$50,000 - 70,000
十七世紀 銅觀音坐像
The posture of the figure with the right knee raised is one associated
with the white-robed Guanyin as early as the Five Dynasties. The
pose with variations continued into the seventeenth century in
porcelain and bronze, notably the Dehua figure of Guanyin seated
between Longnu and Shancai, dated by inscription to Chongzhen
second year (1629), in the City Museum & Art Gallery, Hong Kong
(see P. J. Donnelly, Blanc de Chine, 1969, p. 137 and fig. 71b, 9
13/16in high); and a larger version in bronze published by Michael
Goedhuis and Ulrich Hausmann (see Chinese and Japanese Bronzes
A.D. 1100-1900, 1989, cat. no. 6 and front cover, 18in high). The
type could be expanded to the silver-inlaid bronze figures of a
16 | BONHAMS
seated Guanyin bearing the signature of Shisou and ascribed in
date from the late Ming dynasty, mid-16th to mid-17th century (for
example, Sidney L. Moss, Ltd., Emperor Scholar Artisan Monk: the
Creative Personality in Chinese Works of Art, 1984, cat. no. 132) to
the 17th/18th century (for example, Christie’s New York, sale 2689,
21-22 March 2013, lot 1282).
In the above and other examples, Guanyin often presents a full face
with calm, idealized features. The head of Guanyin in this lot, in
contrast, is quite individualized - a self-confident beauty with high
forehead, pert nose and a bamboo-shaped hairpin in her coiffure
of fashionable late Ming type (for jade examples, see James Watt,
Chinese Jades Han to Ch’ing, 1980, cat. no. 192, p. 198; and cat. no.
193, bearing the signature of Lu Zigang, cat. no. 193, p. 199). This
seated Guanyin seems to have more in common with rare portrait-like
male figures from the secular realm, such as the seated scholar-official
inscribed with Wanli cyclical dates from the Doris Duke Collection
(Christie’s New York, sale 1408, 21 September 2004, lot 125, 22.9cm
high) and the charming censer in the form of a seated scholar and
goose, ascribed to the Ming dynasty (Christie’s New York, sale 1639,
29 March 2006, lot 322, 40.6cm long).