A rare gilt-bronze figure of Chintamanichakra Avalokiteshvara, Late Tang dynasty / Five Dynasties

拍品描述

the central standard mounted in a wood stand (2) Height 6¼ in., 16.5 cm Magnificently cast with sumptuous flowing robes, six graceful arms and a serene and tender gaze, the present figure is a rare and important example of an elusive group of esoteric Buddhist figures from the late Tang dynasty. A manifestation of the most beloved Buddhist deity in China — Avalokiteshvara, or Guanyin — the present figure represents a much rarer variation on the figure known in Sanskrit as Chintamanichakra or Ruyilun Guanyin in Chinese. While images of Avalokiteshvara quickly became adopted on the arrival of sutras from India, the adoption and adaption of more esoteric forms of the deity continued to develop as new writings were transmitted and translated in the ensuing centuries; see Chun-fang Yu, 'Guanyin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteshvara', in Marsha Weidner, Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 850-1850, Kansas, 1994, where the author traces the development of these esoteric forms through early transmission in the Eastern Jin dynasty (317-420) and further developments in the Northern Zhou (557-581 A.D.). Chintamanichakra is often depicted in the same pose as the present, holding in the six arms the wish-granting jewel (chintamani) in front of the chest, the dharma wheel (chakra) in a raised palm, the stem of a lotus in another hand, a mala in another, and the sixth planted down for support. The murals of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, in Cave 14, show a colorfully painted six-armed Chintamanichakra, in the same pose as the present example, and bearing the same attributes, executed in the late Tang period. While the Tang dynasty is rightfully understood as a zenith of Buddhist image-making, some more esoteric designs from the period are particularly rare and may have been the victims of government suppression, such as during the Huichang Persecution of 842-846 CE, in which a large number of Buddhist statues and temples were demolished, apparently particularly catastrophic to less established visual schools. To date, only one other Chintamanichakra of this type appears to be attested, preserved in the Yamato Bunkakan Museum, Nara, and illustrated in Saburo Matsubara, Chūgoku bukkyō chōkokushi ron [Historical discussion of Chinese Buddhist sculpture], vol. 3, Tokyo, 1995, pl. 752 (Fig.1), where the author dates the figure to the mid- to late Tang dynasty. Slightly more rudimentary in its casting, particularly in the rendering of the lotus pedestal and face, the Yamato example is almost identical in posture but with three of its arms broken including the one once holding the chintamani pearl. Indeed, Tang dynasty esoteric figures of any subject matter are almost unheard of today, particularly of this substantial size and exceptional casting, with all surviving examples sharing common features and possibly produced for a small handful of elite devotional contexts. Compare a closely related esoteric figure – that of the bodhisattva Vajrasattva – preserved in the Art Institute of Chicago (accession no. 1966.481), formerly in the James W. and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, from which it was illustrated in Hugo Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Tokyo, 1967, pl. 81 (Fig. 2). The Alsdorf figure, attributed to the late 8th or early 9th century, features a closely related tall crown, similarly loose posture and dhoti draping over crossed legs and chased lotus pedestal. Also compare a bodhisattva grasping a lotus stem but lacking identifiable attributes, in Matsubara, op. cit., pl. 787a. With an almost identical pedestal design, a headdress that overflows to the ground and crisply rendered knots in the fabric, the figure is somewhat more thickly cast than the present but is clearly of related origin; as is a related figure in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York attributed to the 10th century in Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven, 2010, pl. A35 (Fig. 3). As above, the Metropolitan Museum figure has a lotus petal base of the same distinctive design as the present example and closely related drapery, proportions, and facial modeling but, like the Matsubara figure, lacks the taller crown. Two further bronze figures of note appear to be preserved from a related esoteric group bearing closely related high crowns and lotus pedestals. One bodhisattva, holding a chintamani, is attributed to the 8th century in Tang Dynasty: Chinese Gold and Silver in American Collections, Dayton Art Institute, 1984, cat. no. 73 and identified possibly as Akasagarbha; while the other, an image of the Vairochana Buddha himself, is preserved in the Tsz Shan Monastery Buddhist Art Museum, Hong Kong (accession no. 2017.23) and is illustrated on the Museum’s website bearing a particularly close comparison in its facial rendering.

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