A GILT-LACQUERED BRONZE FIGURE OF SAMANTABHADRA LATE MING DYNASTY | 明末 漆金銅普賢菩薩像

An old Japanese collection.

日本舊藏

Samantabhadra is the Bodhisattva associated with the practise of Buddhist teaching and joins Manjushri, the lord of transcendent wisdom, in a trinity with Shakyamuni Buddha. The Bodhisattva is borne by a white elephant, symbolic of the strength achieved through the practise of Buddhism. The bronze is typical of later Ming works, finely cast and of rich colour, and made with elegant reference to antiquity, the heavy and elaborate jewellery and voluminous undulating robes echoing the classical styles of Northern Qi through Song period sculpture. A larger bronze figure of Samantabhadra of the same period was sold in these rooms, 3rd April 2018, lot 3677.

There is a long tradition of depicting the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra in bronze. A Song dynasty figure of Samantabhadra in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated as one of a pair, together with the Bodhisattva Manjusri in Zhongguo meishu quanji. Diaosu bian [The complete collection of Chinese art: Sculptures], vol. 5, Beijing, 1989, pls 153-154. See also the example from the collection of Sakamoto Gorō, sold in these rooms, 5th October 2016, lot 3222, and an earlier Tang dynasty gilt-bronze prototype, previously exhibited at the Kubuso Museum, Japan, 1993, sold in our New York rooms, 20th March 2007, lot 735.