Lot 8037. A rare monumental bronze figure of Mahakasyapa, Ming dynasty. Estimate US$ 300,000 - 600,000 (€270,000 - 540,000). Photo: Bonhams. 

The imposing figure cast standing and gazing sternly downwards with thick drooping brows and a ridged frown above the hooded eyes, the smooth head with a pronounced forehead and accentuated by elongated earlobes, the body elaborately draped in a heavy outer cloak reaching to the knees and chased with a richly embroidered border containing lotus blossoms on a foliate meander, two corners of the robe looped into a circular clasp at the left shoulder held by a ruyi-shaped buckle and below a three-stranded knotted rope, the two hands clasped one over the other and held in front of the chest, the undergarment also with an embroidered hem of zigzag motifs from which the two feet in cloth shoes protrude, all raised on a double lotus pedestal above a beaded edge. 66in (167.6cm) high

Notes: This figure of Mahakasyapa is most likely one of a pair, the probable companion being a figure of Ananda from the collection of Leon and Jean Dalva, sold at Sotheby's New York, sale 9191, Images of Enlightenment: Devotional Works of Art and Paintings, 17 September 2014, lot 430. 

A bronze figure of a monk dated to the 17th century, with closely related features to the present lot, including a pronounced forehead, heavy frowning brows, hands clasped in the same gesture and confident stance on a double lotus pedestal, is in the collection of the British Museum, accession number 1990,0529.1. However at only 68.8cm high, the museum figure is considerably smaller than the present lot, and it lacks certain ornate details such as the buckle on the left shoulder.  

A gilt-bronze standing figure of Buddha of similar size to the present lot is in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, accession number 922.4.89 from the George Crofts Collection. Dated to the 16th/17th century, it shows a similar treatment of the heavy folds of the robe richly decorated with lotus borders, and the double lotus pedestal. 

A RARE MONUMENTAL BRONZE FIGURE OF MAHAKASYAPA 

Considered to be one of his closest and most outstanding disciples, the Arhat Mahakasyapa (Chinese: Mohe Jiaye) in Han Buddhist traditions is usually depicted in attendance upon the historical Buddha Sakyamuni together with his youthful friend and fellow Sangha member, Ananda. In the present lot, as is typical, Mahakasyapa furrows his brow in a portentous heavy frown above hands held out in front of his chest in prayer. In this way, as the older, more serious figure of the two, Mahakasyapa guides the devout Buddhist practitioner using his strong paternalistic presence, perhaps instilling a sense of awe and fearful wonder, as well as strength, rigor and calm.

The monumental size of the present lot is particularly well suited to the portrayal of these characteristics: this is a father-figure both overbearing and stern, yet somehow nurturing in his strength and power. The supreme technical achievements of late Ming artisans are especially suited to conveying this, using the strong, confident casting of the age to create a piece with individualized and memorable features. 

The tradition of depicting the Sakyamuni Buddha with these two disciples can be traced back at least to Northern Wei sculptures (386–535CE) found at the Longmen caves in China's Henan Province. Other examples can be seen on a Western Wei stele dated to 549CE in the Avery Brundage Collection at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (d'Argencé and Turner, The Avery Brundage Collection, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Sculpture, 1974, p. 113). In that example, the monks' features were not sufficiently distinct for positive identification, but by the latter half of the 7th century, in a mid Tang stele, also from the Avery Brundage Collection, Ananda has evolved into his well-known form of a youth standing on the left, with Mahakasyapa on the right, the familiar old man, complete with creases on his forehead, bushy eyebrows and a brooding expression (ibid., p. 178).

Though they would not come to play theological roles as major as Bodhisattvas such as Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin) and Manjusri (Wenshushili), Arhats (Chinese: Luohan) like this Mahakasyapa figure still had an important role in Chinese religion as it developed through the Ming. One example can be seen in the character of Mulian (Sanskrit: Maudgalyana), the filial son who rescued his mother from the realm of the hungry ghosts, as described by the Ullambana Sutra (Chinese: Fo Shuo Bao En Fengpen Jing), ostensibly a Mahayana text but with a very comfortingly native Confucian and Chinese ideological moral. From this text came numerous examples of operas and literature, as well as the Zhongyuan or Yulanpan festival of the fifteenth day of the Seventh lunar Month where food is distributed so that the dead, like Mulian's mother, can be saved. This Confucian/Buddhist syncretism went on to be eagerly adopted by the Japanese for their Obon festival. Interestingly, this figure of Maudgalyana is the Arhat usually in attendance upon the Buddha Sakyamuni in Tibetan iconography, there as in Ming statues like the present lot, clasping its hands together in the prayerful Namaskaramudra.

Although large-scale Buddhist figures in wood from the Ming period are preserved in private and public collections throughout the world, very few bronze figures of comparable size survive. This Mahakasyapa is likely the pair to a figure of Ananda from the collection of Leon and Jean Dalva, sold at Sotheby's New York, sale 9191, Images of Enlightenment: Devotional Works of Art and Paintings, 17 September 2014, lot 430. 

The two figures may have flanked either a standing or seated figure of the Buddha of equally impressive size, as suggested by the massive gilt bronze triad in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, originally from the Muneuchi Nitta Collection: see Chen Huixia, Li Dai Jin Tong Fo Zao Xiang Te Zhen Tu Lu (A Special Exhibition of Recently Acquired Gilt Bronze Buddhist Images), Taibei, 1996, nos. 25-27, pp. 86-89. The Buddha is seated between two elaborately dressed standing figures of Guanyin, all supported on matching lotus pedestals (312cm height of central figure, 240cm height of the attendants). 

An early 17th century date was proposed for that Buddha triad now in the National Palace Museum, based on the similarity between the face of the seated Buddha to that of a smaller gilt bronze standing Baby Buddha, dated by inscription to Tianqi fourth year (1624), also in the Nitta Collection, published in the National Palace Museum exhibition Jin Tong Fo Zao Xiang Te Zhan Tu Lu (The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom), Taibei 1987, pl. 119. The faces of both the Nitta infant Buddha and the massive seated Buddha show remarkable similarity to that of the likely mate to the present lot, the massive bronze Ananda from the collection of Leon and Jean Dalva.

Terese Tse Bartholomew - Curator Emeritus. The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

Bonhams. CHINESE WORKS OF ART, 11:00 EDT  - NEW YORK