Lot 736. A bronze figure of a standing bodhisattva, Northern Wei dynasty, dated by inscription to AD 530; 5 3⁄4 in. (14.5 cm.) high, Japanese fitted zitan box. Estimate USD 10,000 - USD 15,000. Price realised USD 60,480. © Christie's 2022

The figure is shown standing on a lotus base, with the right hand holding a section of the long, looped necklace gathered by a disk, and the left hand holding the scarf draped over the left arm, while the ends of the robes and the scarves flare out to the sides. The face is cast with a gentle expression, and is framed by the ribbons that trail from the crown decorated with three globular 'jewels'. 

Provenance: Important private Japanese collection, prior to 1994, and thence by descent within the family.

Literature: Bijutsu Kenkyu, Institute of Art Research, 1958, fig. 16.
Matsubara Saburo, Research on Chinese Buddhist Sculpture History, 1961, no. 80 C and fig. 101, p. 124.
Ancient Chinese Art - The Origin of Japanese Art, Kagawa, 1968,  F9.
Osaka City Museum, Chinese Buddhist Sculptures, Osaka, 1984, p. 61, no. 89.
Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Gilt Bronze Buddha in Six Dynasties, Izumi, 1991, no. 91.
Yamato Bunkakan, Chinese Gilt Bronze Statues of Buddhism, Tokyo, 1992, no. 29.

Exhibited: Kagawa Prefecture, Kagawa Prefectural Cultural Hall, Ancient Chinese Art - The Origin of Japanese Art, 1968.
Osaka, The Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, Art of the Six Dynasties, 10 October- 9 November 1975.
Aichi, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Hidden 3000 Years- Asian Art Culture, 17 April-5 May (year unknown).

Note: The treatment of the figure's robes and scarves, which flare outward in an animated fashion from the sides, is one of the distinctive styles seen during the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei and Western Wei periods. A similar treatment of the robes, with flaring, wing-tipped drapery, can be seen on the figure of a gilt-bronze luohan (14.6 cm. high) in the Fogg Museum, Cambridge, illustrated by H. Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Vermont/Tokyo, 1967, frontispiece, where it is dated Northern Wei dynasty. This depiction of the robes and scarves creates an abstract, linear pattern that obscures the body. The current figure is very similar to another bodhisattva which forms the center of a complex votive group in the Art Institute of Chicago, illustrated by Matsubara Saburo in Chugoku Bukkyo Chokokushi ron (The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture),Tokyo, 1995, vol. 1, pl. 296, where it is dated Western Wei (AD 535-556), as it is by Jin Shen in Zhongguo lida; jinian foxiang tudian (Illustrated Chinese Buddha Images through the Ages), Beijing, 1995, p. 216, no. 158. Not only are the robes, scarves and necklace similar, but also the shape and features of the face and the crown with trailing ribbons. Like the current figure, the bodhisattva in the published group stands on a lotus base, but is surrounded by subsidiary figures, all raised on a stand with open sides that is inscribed with a dedicatory inscription by Kang Sheng dated to AD 539. A similar gilt-bronze figure with nearly identical treatement of robes and scarves was sold at Christie's New York, Treasures of the Noble Path: Early Buddhist Art from Japanese Collections, 14 September 2017, lot 812.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 25 march 2022