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24 mars 2016

A magnificent large limestone sculpture of a tianlu, Eastern Han – Jin dynasty

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Lot 2822, A magnificent large limestone sculpture of a tianlu, Eastern Han – Jin dynastyEstimate 4,500,000 — 6,500,000 HKD (521,078 - 752,669 EUR). Photo Sotheby's.

the mythical beast powerfully rendered, depicted striding with the left front leg forward, the head depicted held high and flanked by a pair of funnel-form ears, staring intensely through piercing and large bulging eyes above its flaring nostrils and well pronounced snout, the beast baring its teeth and sharp canines in a fierce and mighty roar, above a long tuft of beard falling to a curled tip at the chest, flanked by a pair of wings extending back and upwards from the broad front haunches, the curved contours of the wings echoing the elaborately carved low-relief scales on the taut and muscular body and the long curved tail, the tail carried low behind the haunches, wood stand; overall length 103.5 cm, 40 3/4  in.

ProvenanceYamanaka & Co. Ltd.

ExhibitedMeihin Shuuki Ten [Autumn exhibition of masterpieces]Fujita Art Museum, Osaka, 1952.

NoteThe Han dynasty saw a heightened interest in the representation of powerful mythical creatures in durable materials such as stone. In distinct contrast to pottery figures of humans, animals and mythical beasts mass-produced for tombs to provide support in the afterlife, the function of these lifelike sculptures made from durable materials was to embody and pacify the elemental and supernatural forces of the living world. Large stone figures of ferocious beasts including lions and tigers, and imaginary winged figures, were all placed on the avenues of emperors and high ranking officials and military commanders, a tradition that flourished through the Han and successive dynasties, when immense fabulous beasts drawn from the spiritual world were produced on a grand scale outside the tombs near Nanjing.

In its powerful yet elegant modelling, this powerful beast occupies a significant position in the classical tradition of Chinese sculpture and provides insight into the aesthetic ideals sponsored in China between the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) and Jin Dynasty (265-420 AD). The present tianlu represents the zenith of large scale statuary. In the Yamanaka 1952 exhibition at Fujita Art Museum, the sculpture was catalogued as Eastern Jin dynasty (fig. 1), but in the light of other published examples from Luoyang and Jiankang (present day Nanjing), it can be assigned to the period covering Eastern Han / Jin dynasty. The closest comparable published example is a 2nd century stone chimera in the Luoyang Museum, illustrated in Angela Falco Howard et al., Chinese Sculpture, New Haven and London, 2006, p. 92, together with one (of a pair) dated to the 3rd to 4th century illustrated in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, A Handbook of the Collection, New York, 1993, p. 302, in addition to a pair of smaller Eastern Han stone chimeras in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, that once surmounted tall stone pillars along the 'spirit paths'. Compare also a 3rd century example in the Luoyang Museum that was included in the exhibition China: Dawn of a Golden Age 200-750 A.D., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004, p. 104.

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Fig. 1: Selection of Bokubi journals (Courtesy of a private Asian collection)

Despite the number of monumental stone chimeras that have survived in situ in China, only a few can be counted among the treasures of Western collections, including massive examples in the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Avery Brundage Collection, now in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and illustrated in Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1974, p. 126, pl. 53.  A related model of a chimera attributed to the 6th century is in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm and is published in Osvald Siren, 'Winged Chimeras in Early Chinese Art', Eastern Art: An Annual, vol. I, Philadelphia, 1928, p. 92, figs. 8 and 9.  See also a seated lion, in the Rietberg Museum, Zurich, illustrated in Chinese Sculptures in the von der Heydt Collection, Zurich, 1959, pl. 31, together with a head of a lion attributed to the Tang dynasty, pl. 53.

The only stone sculpture of this size and quality ever to have been offered at auction is the limestone chimera from the collection of Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, sold in our New York rooms, 20th March 2007, lot 512. The Albright-Knox sculpture, also acquired from Yamanaka & Co., is slightly later in date than the current example, with the unusual feature of a series of parallel ridges along the chest and at the ribs.

Sotheby's. Literati / Curiosity II, Hong Kong, 05 Apr 2016, 10:15 AM

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