Lot 27. Rare et importante statue de Guanyin en bois polychrome et doré, Chine, dynastie Song (960-1279). Estimate EUR 200,000 - EUR 300,000 (USD 213,717 - USD 320,576). Price realised EUR 5,170,500. © Christie’s Images Limited 2016. 

Paris – On December 14, Christie’s Paris will offer its Asian Art sale, the second Parisian auction this year. After a successful 300 lots sale that achieved over €9M, this season’s auction is focused on a smaller amount of works of art, nonetheless important. Each work has been carefully selected to fit the sale, the main focus being beauty, high quality and interesting provenances. On December 14, 88 lots will be offered at a global estimate of 2 to 3 million euros, spanning works from all Asia, with pieces from India, Java, Cambodia, Thailand, Tibet, China and Japan.

The sale is led by an important Song Dynasty wood figure of Guanyin estimated at €200,000-300,000. This important 13th century masterpiece comes from the former collection of Roger Vivier, famous French shoe-maker who invented the stiletto heel and produced shoes notably for Dior. Additionally, the sculpture was exhibited in 1954 in Paris at the musée des Arts Décoratifs, and has been featured in numerous publications.

Lot 27. Rare et importante statue de Guanyin en bois polychrome et doré, Chine, dynastie Song (960-1279). Estimate EUR 200,000 - EUR 300,000 (USD 213,717 - USD 320,576). Price realised EUR 5,170,500. © Christie’s Images Limited 2016.

A rare and important gilt and polychrome wood figure of Guanyin, China, Song dynasty (960-1279)

Il est élégamment assis en rajalilasana, la main droite posée sur son genou droit plié. Il est vêtu d'un fin dhoti, une écharpe posée sur ses épaules laissant son torse dénudé paré d'un précieux collier. Son visage aux yeux mi-clos est empreint de sérénité et surmonté d'un haut chignon retenu par un ruban rouge. Son front est agrémenté de l'urna ; restaurations. Hauteur : 131 cm. (51 ½ in.), socle

Provenance: Compagnie de la Chine et des Indes, Paris.
Collection of Mr Roger Vivier (1903-1998), Paris. Mr Vivier was a famous French fashion designer who specialised in shoes. His best known creation was the stiletto heel. He was called the "Fragonard of the shoe" and worked amongst others for Christian Dior.
Acquired from Mr Vivier by a French private collector through the expert Michel Beurdeley on June 28th 1978, and thence by descent in the family.

Literature: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Chefs d'Oeuvre de la Curiosité du Monde, 2ème Exposition Internationale de la C.I.N.O.A, 10 June - 30 September 1954, Exhibition Catalogue, n° 409. (fig. 1a & 1b)
Encyclopaedia Universalis, Encyclopaedia Universalis France S.A, Paris, 1968, Volume 5, article Dieux et Déesses, pl. VI. (fig. 3)
Connaissance des Arts, Les grandes collections, Art ancien avec Art nouveau pour M. Roger Vivier la création artistique ne connait ni frontières ni époques, Juillet-Aout 1968, n° 197-198, pp. 88-94. (fig. 2)

fig. 1a & 1b - Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Chefs d’Oeuvre de la Curiosité du Monde, 2ème Exposition Internationale de la C.I.N.O.A, Paris, 10 June - 30 September 1954, Exhibition Catalogue, n° 409.

fg. 2 - Interior of Roger Vivier's home in Connaissance des Arts, Les grandes collections, Art ancien avec Art nouveau [...], Paris, Juillet-Août 1968, n° 197-198, pp. 88-94.

fg. 3 - Encyclopaedia Universalis, Encyclopaedia Universalis France S.A, Paris, 1968, Volume 5, pl. VI.

Exhibited: Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Chefs d'Oeuvre de la Curiosité du Monde, 2ème Exposition Internationale de C.I.N.O.A, 10 June - 30 September 1954.

Serenity and Compassion – A Rare Song Dynasty Guanyin
Rosemary Scott, International Academic Director Asian Art

This graceful figure of the bodhisattva Guanyin sits in a variation of the pose known in Indian iconography as rajalilasana, or ‘royal ease’. The left leg is pendant, while the right is bent and raised, so that, at just below shoulder height, the bodhisattva’s right arm is able to rest casually on the knee. The torso leans very slightly to the left, giving the impression that the left arm, which is straight, appears to take the full weight of the body. The figure does, indeed, appear completely at ease – relaxed, but retaining a quiet dignity and serenity. This pose is often associated with one of the most popular aspects of the bodhisattva – ‘Guanyin of the Southern Seas’ or ‘Water-Moon Guanyin’. This name is a reference to Guanyin residing on the mythical Mount Potalaka, which was believed to exist in the seas off the southern coast of India. This particular imagery was introduced into China in the 5th century with the first complete translation of the Avatamska Sutra (full name - Mahavaipulya Buddhavata?saka Sutra, The Flower Adornment Sutra 大方廣佛華嚴經), one of the most influential sutras of Mahayanist Buddhism.

The bodhisattva Guanyin, whose name in Sanskrit is Avalokitesvara, is an important fgure in the Mahayanist Buddhist tradition. The Sanskrit name derives from two parts – avalokita, meaning ‘seen’ – and ishvara, meaning ‘lord’. The meaning is therefore either ‘the lord who is seen’ or ‘the lord who sees’. In either case it is the presence of the deity amongst the people of the world, and his accessibility, that is emphasised. The full name in Chinese is Guanshiyin 觀世音 – ‘one who hears the sounds [prayers] of the world’. The impression is of an omnipresent deity to whom mortals may turn in times of trouble. Guanyin is a bodhisattva, which means that he is one who has attained enlightenment, but who has deferred entering nirvana and Buddhahood in order to help allay the sufering of others and help them to attain enlightenment. In the Chinese translation of the Saddharma Pundarīka Sutra (Lotus Sutra 妙法蓮華經), the Indo-Iranian Kumarajiva (ca. AD 350-410) refers to Guanyin as the ‘Bodhisattva of Infnite Compassion’. With the rise of the Pure Land School of Buddhism in China in the 7th century, Guanyin became one of the most prominent figures in the Chinese Buddhist pantheon. In the Song dynasty, when this sculpture was created, Guanyin was still depicted as an androgynous male, but later in the 12th century the bodhisattva began to be associated with a female manifestation, which gained momentum in the succeeding centuries until Guanyin was seen as the ‘Goddess of mercy’.

In Pure Land Buddhism 淨土宗 Guanyin is identifed as one of the counsellor-emissaries of the Buddha Amitabha – the Buddha who presides over the Pure Land or Western Paradise, and in a second translation of the three sutras that comprise the Pure Land Sutra, Guanyin is identifed as the successor to Amitabha. The same translation notes that any virtuous man or woman who fnds themselves in trouble may entrust themselves to the Bodhisattvas Avalokitesvara or Mathasthamapraptra, and they will be saved. Representations of Guanyin, therefore, may sometimes be identifed by a small figure of Amitabha at the front of the diadem.

This bodhisattva is shown in simple, but princely robes. The lower body and legs are clothed in a paridhana or long dhoti, which falls in elegant, natural, folds and conforms to the shape of the lower legs of the figure. His chest is bare, but a long sinuous scarf crosses it obliquely, is tied on the left shoulder, and is draped over the right arm. The bodhisattva wears jewellery appropriate to his princely rank in the form of a necklace, bracelets, and a diadem in his hair. Typically for figures of this period, the hair is looped around the ears and then swept up into a chignon. Like a number of other surviving wooden bodhisattva figures of this date there are relief designs on the paridhana at the knees of the figure and along the edges of the cloth. It must be born in mind that figures such as this one would have been in a temple for centuries and at intervals it would have been redecorated. Therefore, not only are there several layers of pigment, but these relief designs, which may have been added in the Ming dynasty. 

A slightly larger Northern Song Guanyin sculpture in this pose, although seated on a lotus throne, dated to the third year of Yuanfeng (AD 1079), is in the Chongqing temple in Shanxi province (illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji, diaosu bian, 5, Wudai Song diaosu, Beijing, 1988, p. 65, no. 64. Such sculptures, including the current example are particularly associated with North China, especially Shanxi province in the period 10th-14th century, due to the pre-eminent centres of Buddhism at Taiyuan and Wutaishan. Another similar figure, dated c. AD 1025, is in the Honolulu Academy of Arts. A slightly smaller Guanyin in this pose, dated c. AD 1200, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and is discussed at length by J. Larson and R. Kerr in Guanyin –A Masterpiece Revealed, London, 1985. A slightly smaller figure of Guanyin in similar pose, dated c. AD 1250, is in the collection of Princeton University, where the curators note that the relief decoration on the skirt and scarves of the figure was probably added during the Ming dynasty. A slightly larger Song sculpture of Guanyin in this pose is also in the collection of the British Museum, London (see Buddhism: Art and Faith, London, 1985, no. 296), while a slightly smaller Northern Song figure of the bodhisattva Manjusri in a similar pose, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum (see Wisdom Embodied – Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, p. 180, no. A44). 

Guanyin (Bodhisattva), c. 1025. Painted wood, height: 67 in. (170.2 cm). Purchase, 1927 (2400) ©2014 Honolulu Museum of Art.

Figure of Bodhisattva Guanyin, wood, carved, painted, lacquered and gilded, China, Jin Dynasty, ca. 1200. Purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund, the Vallentin Bequest, Sir Percival David and the Universities China Committee (A.7-1935) © Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2016.

Guanyin seated in Royal-ease pose, ca. 1250, Southern Song dynasty, 1127–1279. Wood with traces of blue-green, red, and gold pigments on white clay underlayer with relief designs. h. 110.0 cm., approx w. 79.0 cm., approx d. 50.0 cm. (43 5/16 x 31 1/8 x 19 11/16 in.). Museum purchase, Carl Otto von Kienbusch Jr., Memorial Collection (y1950-66) © 2016 The Trustees of Princeton University

Wooden figure of Avalokiteshvara, 11thC-12thC. Purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund Asia 1920,0615.1 © The Trustees of the British Museum

Bodhisattva Manjushri (Wenshu), late 10th-early 12th century. © 2000–2016 The Metropolitan Museum of Art