A massive Ming gilt-bronze figure of a seated Shakyamuni Buddha sells for US$30.3 million

11 octobre 2013

A massive Ming gilt-bronze figure of a seated Shakyamuni Buddha sells for US$30.3 million

Ming Yongle Gilt-Bronze Figure of a Seated Shakyamuni Buddha. Photo: Sotheby's.

HONG KONG.- The five sales of Sotheby’s Hong Kong Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art concluded on 8 October with a combined total of HK$1.26 billion / US$161.5 million (total estimate: HK$750 million / US$96 million*). Multiple records were set, including the top lot, A Massive Gilt-Bronze Figure of a Seated Shakyamuni Buddha which sold for HK$236.44 million / US$30.3 million (Expected to fetch in excess of HK$50 million / US$6.4 million) to Mr. Zheng Huaxing of Zhongshan Qujuezhai, Guangdong, to be returned to China, setting the World Auction Record For Chinese Sculpture.

Nicolas Chow, Sotheby’s Asia Deputy Chairman and International Head of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, said, “Our 40 year anniversary sale was an extraordinary success fuelled both by the quality and breadth of the various collections on offer, as well as the dramatic participation of clients from all around the globe. With the early 15th century gilt-bronze Buddha, we have set a record for any Asian work of art. While participation from our mainland clients was comparatively muted for the last couple of seasons, they have made an extraordinary comeback this season, with many of our top lots returning to China.”

A world auction record for a Chinese sculpture was achieved yesterday in #HK with a Ming gilt-bronze figure of a seated Shakyamuni Buddha selling for HK$236.44 million / US$30.3 million to Mr. Zheng Huaxing of Zhongshan Wujuezhai, Guangdong.

Lot 3075. An outstanding and highly important massive gilt-bronze figure of a seated Shakyamuni Buddha, Mark and period of Yongle (1403-1424); 54.5 cm., 21 1/2 in. Estimate Upon Request. Lot sold 236,440,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's 2013

well-cast and portrayed seated in vajraparyankasana, the right hand held in bhumisparshamudra and the left indhyanamudra, wearing a pleated robe draped over the left shoulder with the undergarment gathered at the chest, the serene face with downcast eyes and a meditative expression, flanked by a pair of long pendulous ears cut with vertical slots, the head and domed ushnisha covered with tight curls and surmounted by an ovoid jewel, all supported on a double lotus pedestal with beaded edges and inscribed Da Ming Yongle nian shi, the base sealed and engraved with avisvavajra

Provenance:

An old Italian private collection since the 1960s.
An Italian private collection, Genoa, acquired in 1990.
Thence by family descent.

The Shakya Sage
An Exceptional Yongle Gilt-Bronze Buddha
David Weldon

The artists working in the imperial workshops during the Yongle period remain anonymous, but their gilt bronze sculptures have now become recognised as among the most important works of art from the Buddhist world, characterised by faultless casting and rich golden hue. Some fifty-four examples bearing the inscription da Ming Yongle nian shi (‘bestowed in the Yongle era of the great Ming’) have been documented in Tibetan monastery collections; see Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, vol. II, pp. 1237-91. These works have survived in Tibet due to imperial patronage lavished on Tibetan hierarchs and monasteries during the reign of the Yongle emperor. Zhu Di (1360-1424) pursued a bountiful relationship with Tibetan religious leaders during his reign as Yongle (Perpetual Happiness) emperor, but not all bronzes from his workshops were cast as gifts to Tibetans, nor were they all made following the strict Tibetan iconographic canons. A relatively large group depict Chinese Buddhist iconography that was not popular in Tibet, such as the Speelman Udayana Buddha, sold in these rooms, 7th October 2006, lot 803, and the Markbreiter Marichi and Chintamanichakra Avalokitesvara, also sold in these rooms, 7th October 2010, lot 2141 and 2143. With the emperor’s espousal of Buddhism it may be assumed that works were also cast to be worshipped locally, especially those iconographic subjects that depict deities from familiar Chinese Buddhist traditions. The present gilt bronze Buddha shows no signs of having been ritually painted as is normal in Tibetan Buddhist practise, and it could be that the sculpture was made in the imperial workshops for local worship rather than as a gift to a Tibetan hierarch.

The stylistic origin of the Yongle Buddha can be traced to the Yuan dynasty when Tibetan Buddhism became the court religion. Early fourteenth century woodblocks made for the monastery of Yangshen Yuan, Hangzhou, are evidence of a new style appearing in Chinese Buddhist art, see Heather Stoddard Karmay, Early Sino-Tibetan Art, Warminster, 1975, pp. 47-50, pls. 26, 29, 30. The gently smiling faces, full rounded figures and tiered thrones in these woodblock prints reflect the current Newar styles favoured in Tibet, and introduced into China by Nepalese artists such as Aniko (1244-1306). Yongle sculptors could almost have used these illustrations as a blueprint for works such as the Shakyamuni Buddha shrine in the British Museum, W. Zwalf ed.,Buddhism: Art and Faith, London, 1985, frontispiece, and the Speelman shrine, sold in these rooms, 7th October 2006, lot 808 (fig. 1). The present Buddha follows much the same style but has no additional throne, and differs in subtle stylistic detail from the British Museum and the Speelman examples: the drape of the Buddha’s robe over the lotus seat gathers linearly in front of the legs, in the manner of the Speelman Vajradhara, sold ibid., lot 811, rather than spreading in undulating folds. And an incised line decorates the hem of the Buddha’s robe throughout, a detail not encountered elsewhere in the oeuvre. Apart from these minor differences the classic Yongle style is evident in the loosely folded cloth over the legs and torso, the ubiquitous drape of the robe falling from the right shoulder, and the bulbous lotus petals of the pedestal, evenly spaced around the base between rows of rounded pearls.

From the Speelman Collection. Gilt-Bronze Seated Figure of Buddha, Mark and Period of Yongle, Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7th October 2006, Lot 808.

Other than the monumental gilt-bronze Padmapani in the Qinghai Museum, see The Palace Museum, Splendors from the Yongle (1403-1424) and Xuande (1426-1435) Reigns of China’s Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2010, p. 253, pl. 126, and the Cernuschi Museum example, Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p. 531. Pl. 151E, this Buddha is one of largest extant Yongle marked bronze sculptures, comparable in size to the important Xuande Amitayus, Christie’s Hong Kong, May 31, 2010, lot 1961. The iconographic form, in which the historical Buddha is presented, unadorned but for a simple robe and seated in the earth-touching gesture (bhumishparsha mudra), is relatively uncommon in the corpus of Yongle bronzes, with only one small example recorded in von Schroeder’s survey of Tibetan monastery collections, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, op. cit., p. 1280, pl. 358A. Other small examples include the rare Nepalese style Yongle Buddha in the Markbreiter Collection, sold in these rooms, 7th October 2010, lot 2142 and a classic version in the Palace Museum,Splendors from the Yongle (1403-1424) and Xuande (1426-1435) Reigns of China’s Ming Dynasty, op. cit., p. 244, pl. 118, but the present example is by far the largest yet recorded.

The Buddha’s earth-touching gesture recalls an episode from his spiritual biography in which he triumphs over Mara (maravijaya) just prior to his enlightenment. Having vowed to remain in meditation until he penetrated the mysteries of existence, Shakyamuni was visited by Mara, a demon associated with the veils and distractions of mundane existence. The Buddha remained unmoved by all the pleasant and unpleasant distractions with which Mara sought to deflect him from his goal. According to some traditional accounts, Mara’s final assault consisted of an attempt to undermine the bodhisattva’s sense of worthiness by questioning Shakyamuni’s entitlement to seek the lofty goal of spiritual enlightenment and freedom from rebirth. Aided by spirits who reminded him of the countless compassionate efforts he had made on behalf of sentient beings throughout his many animal and human incarnations, Shakyamuni recognised that it was his destiny to be poised on the threshold of enlightenment. In response to Mara’s query, Shakyamuni moved his right hand from his lap to the ground before him, stating, ‘the earth is my witness’. This act of unwavering resolve caused Mara and his army of demons and temptresses to disperse, leaving Shakyamuni to experience his great enlightenment. The episode embodied in this rare Yongle gilt bronze took place upon the adamantine site (vajrasana) at Bodh Gaya, which by tradition was especially empowered to expedite his enlightenment.

OTHER NOTABLE PRICES AND RECORDS

• A Sublime Blue and White “Palace” Bowl, Mark and Period of Chenghua, sold for HK$141.24 million / US$18 million (Expected to achieve in excess of HK$80 million / US$10 million) to the preeminent Hong Kong Chinese ceramics dealer, William Chak of Chak’s Company Ltd., achieving The Second Highest Price For Ming Porcelain.

A Sublime Blue And White “Palace” Bowl, Mark and Period of Chenghua. Photo: Sotheby's

cf. my post: http://www.alaintruong.com/archives/2013/10/08/28170952.html

A Sublime Blue and White “Palace” Bowl, Mark and Period of Chenghua, sold for HK$141.24 million / US$18 million today, achieving the second highest price for Ming porcelain at auction worldwide. #Asia40

• A Qianlong Celadon-Glazed “Longevity” Ruyi-Handled Vase achieved HK$88.6 million / US$11.4 million (Est. HK$10 – 15 million / US$1.3 – 1.9 million), setting World Auction Record For Qing Monochrome Porcelain.

A fine and magnificent celadon-glazed 'Longevity' ruyi-handled vase, seal mark and period of Qianlong. Photo: Sotheby's.

cf. my post http://www.alaintruong.com/archives/2013/09/19/28053089.html

• A Dry Lacquer Head of Buddha from the Tang Dynasty from the Sakamoto Goro Collection achieved HK$40.44 million / US$5.2 million (Est. HK$20 – 30 million / US$2.6 – 3.9 million), setting World Auction Record For Tang Sculpture.

A Magnificent Dry Lacquer Head Of Buddha, Tang Dynasty.

the sensuous full face of the enlightened being with slender bow-shaped eyes and hooded eyelids casting a serene and meditative aura with his omniscient black glass pupils gazing intently ahead, all below evenly arched eyebrows tapering at the ends issuing from the broad straight nose and small bud mouth with full, pale red lips above a double chin and a thick rounded neck, the forehead centred with a faint circular indentation that once held a jewelled urna, all below the hair and domedushnisha with traces of the neatly coifed hair remaining on the forehead and on the sides around the pendulous earlobes with long slits elongated by the heavy earrings worn in his princely former life, the top of the head now left with an uneven rust-coloured surface juxtaposed by the smooth slate-grey lacquer patina of the face and remains of the the hair naturally resembling weathered bronze, the back of the head left open revealing the layers of linen on the interior, wood stand; 45.8 cm., 18 in. Estimation 20,000,000 — 30,000,000 HKD. Lot. Vendu 40,440,000 HKD

Provenance: Acquired between the 1950s and 60s

Exposition: Kaikan tokubetsu shuppin seihin senshu [A special inaugural exhibition], Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, 2005, cat. no. 30.

Divine Features in Lacquer
Regina Krahl

A Buddha image more captivating, majestic and at the same time sensitive – or simply more beautiful – than the Sakamoto Buddha head can hardly have existed in the Tang dynasty (618-907). There is no other technique or material that can evoke the harmony and perfection of a divine face like this ‘dry lacquer’ technique. This head of the Buddha is unique in every respect, including its size and can be ranked among the world’s most moving religious images. The Buddha’s compassion, and the ten Buddhist virtues of integrity, generosity, wisdom, strength of character, patience, renunciation, truthfulness, determination, loving kindness, and serenity are all encapsulated in this portrait. Yet at the same time this sculpture has a worldly beauty quite independent of any religious connotation.

The extant number of Tang dynasty images made in this complex and sophisticated technique is extremely rare, probably not exceeding seven sculptures, mostly preserved in a fragmentary state. This is hardly surprising given the demanding production process on the one hand, which must have severely limited the number of figures ever completed, and the delicacy of these works on the other hand, which mostly likely reduced their number quite dramatically over the centuries.

The production began with a stick-like wooden model over which a figure was sculpted from clay. Onto this clay base patches of lacquer-imbued hemp were pasted that later would provide the core of the figure. These were then covered with further lacquer layers, which would be sculpted in greater detail and carved to acquire their final appearance. The surface was eventually painted in polychrome pigments. When finished, the figures were cut open at the back and the original construction of wood and clay removed to hollow them out and to leave only the thin skin of hemp and lacquer. The advantages of such light figures compared with ones carved from stone are obvious, as they could be completed in specialized metropolitan workshops, easily transported, and carried around in processions. The technique allowed for very precise sculpting and in the modelling of the present head the sculptors displayed particular sensitivity and an uncanny understanding of the expressive quality of simple, sharp lines and soft, rounded curves. By counterbalancing the sweet expression of the full lips and fleshy chin with the seriousness of the crisply cut eyebrows and pointed nose, they made the face come alive and have given this deity a presence that is as fresh today as it was more than a thousand years ago.

The closest companion to the present head and the only other example executed on a similarly impressive scale (c. 50 cm) is the equally magnificent head of a bodhisattva in an unpublished private collection, which may well have been made in the same workshop at the same time, and perhaps once belonged to the same sculpture group as the present head. It is very similarly modelled, the serene face represented with fine detail and the hair largely remaining.

The six other Tang dry-lacquer sculptures that are recorded are all exquisite sculptures in their own right, but quite different in scale and less distinctive in their expression. The famous seated Buddha figure in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (96.5 cm), illustrated, for example, in Sekai bijutsu taisenshū/New History of World Art: Tōyō hen[Eastern series], vol. 4, Tokyo, 1997, pl. 132, which still has a large amount of the original pigment remaining, is known to come from the Daifu Temple in Zhengding, Hebei province and attributed to c. AD 650 (fig. 1). This figure may well have been made in the same workshop as the present head, since the face has similar features and the hair is now remaining in a similar state; yet being smaller, it is executed with much less detail particularly to the eyes and eyebrows. A similar, somewhat smaller seated Buddha figure in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (72.5 cm) has been published together with the Metropolitan Museum Buddha in Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku bukkyō chōkoku shiron/The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1995, vol. III, pl. 810 (figure not available online).

A Buddha bust (c. 51 cm remaining), formerly with Yamanaka & Co, but its present whereabouts unknown (fig. 2), is published in Osvald Sirén,Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, London, 1925, pl. 549, believed by the author to belong to the same series as the Metropolitan Museum figure. Another Buddha bust (45.7 cm remaining), with most of its finely combed hair remaining, from the Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection is in the Seattle Art Museum (no. 51.71)(figure not available online). While all these Buddha figures seem related, a seated bodhisattva figure (44 cm)(figure not available online) and a dancing apsara (40 cm), both in the Cleveland Museum of Art (nos. 1983.86 and 1953.356) are very different in style. Dry-lacquer sculptures are discussed in connection with the Cleveland apsara figure in Sherman E. Lee, ‘A Chinese Lacquer Sculpture’, Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 43, no. 1, January 1956, pp. 6-9, where some of the above figures as well as some later ones are mentioned, including an almost complete luohan figure in the collection of John D. Rockefeller Jr., which does not seem to be published elsewhere and may or may not date from the Tang. Siren illustrates in addition a seated Buddha figure from the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, (no. 25.9), which has been suggested to represent a prototype for the above figures. It also has a lacquer-and-cloth surface, but applied onto a wooden core that has been left in place.

Lacquer was extremely rarely used in the Tang dynasty, mainly on the back of mirrors as a base for some inlay, or to coat plain wooden or ceramic objects. The dry-lacquer technique does not appear to have been practised for long during the Tang dynasty and was only occasionally revived in later dynasties, but never again achieved the level of craftsmanship and artistry that it had in the Tang. It was early on adopted, however, in Japan and there continued to remain important for centuries. According to Kyotaro Nishikawa, ‘Dry Lacquer Statues of Japan’, in N.S. Brommelle and Perry Smith, eds, Urushi. Proceedings of the Urushi Study Group, June 10-27, 1985, Tokyo, Santa Monica, 1988, p. 127, Japanese dry lacquer statues of the four Deva kings are recorded to have been made for the Daian-ji in Nara in the mid-7th century, and the technique was much used between the 8th and 9th centuries. Many works are remaining in the Nara area, mostly made for important temples in and near the capital, with Lee, op.cit. singling out the Todai-ji and Kofuku-ji. In Japan the technique was also already used earlier as partial surface modelling for wooden statues, such as the Kudara Kannon in Horyu-ji. Two standing dry-lacquer figures dated in accordance with AD 734 are illustrated in Nishikawa, op.cit., p. 128, figs. 2 and 3. Forty-eight such sculptures extant in Japan are designated as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties.