A RARE AND IMPRESSIVE GLAZED STONEWARE FIGURE OF GUANYIN AND TWO PEDESTALS FIGURE, MING DYNASTY; PEDESTALS, XUANDE PERIOD AND JIAJING PERIOD

seated on a lotus throne, wearing a jeweled tiara, the left hand in vitarkamudra, the right resting on her knee, the loose flowing robe open at the chest and tied at the waist, the face, arms and chest highlighted in gilt, supported on a six-lobed waisted pedestal of lotus blossom section, decorated around the top edge with fruiting sprays, the waisted section surrounded by six muscular lokapala alternating with figures of dogs and cranes, interrupted by an inscription reading Da Ming Jiajing nian zhi, three sides of the rectangular pedestal decorated with tigers and a lion, one side inscribed with a dedicatory inscription dated to the jiayin year of the reign of Xuande, corresponding to 1434

The guanyin: one hand missing one finger, both hands with restored fingers. There are cracks and splits to the body, and areas of loss to the gilding. There are minor chips to the lotus petals. The first pedestal: scattered chips overall. The second pedestal: All four sides with restored breaks mended with staples on the foot. One side with inscription also with restored breaks and mended with staples.
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The inscription on the pedestal can be translated as follows:
Respectfully presented by Geng Yuyin and Wu Shizhong during the jiayinyear (1434) of the reign of Emperor Jiajing of the Great Ming dynasty. Zhang Tiancheng, the head of The Five [...] Committee of Baofu Temple and committee members pay respects. [...] yu Mountain at [...][...]. Made by master craftsmen Zhou Bugao and Zhou Busheng.

The Baofu Temple is located in Shanxi, 12 km southwest from the township of Tunliu.  It was first built in the second year of Dade reign (1298). The architectural style is that of the Ming Dynasty, with glazed roof tiles, and survived with some murals. The inscription provides a glimpse into the role of patronage in the production of votive images in the Ming period. The names of the donors, Geng Yuyin and Wu Shizhong, the committee head Zhang Tiancheng, together with craftsmen, Zhou Bugao and Zhou Busheng, were responsible for the placement of this figure in the Baofu Temple. According to Jessica Harrison-Hall in Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 531, in the late-Ming period fund-raising appeals were launched by monasteries among the gentry. Monasteries were in constant need of funds to maintain the buildings and thus continued to solicit more visitors and donations. In making their considerable donations, the gentry also sought to receive in return earthly gains such as fortune and status as well as making atonement or investing the spiritual welfare of their family.

Only a small number of large scale ceramic figures of this type are known in Western collections and this piece is particularly notable for its fahua palette glaze. Such temple sculptures were probably a common sight in temples throughout China as part of the furnishing of public buildings and offered a more affordable, yet visually commanding, alternative to large bronze figures that were also created during the Ming dynasty. Compare similarly fashioned figures of Guanyin, with intricately detailed robes, crowns and naturalistic faces, but covered in a sancai glaze, such as one in the Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, illustrated in Hajni Elias, A Dealer’s Hand. The Chinese Art World through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi, London, 2012, p. 233, pl. 143; another from the collection of Paul Houo-Ming-Tse, illustrated in Paul Houo-Ming-Tse, Preuves des Antiquities de Chine, Beijing, 1930, p. 621; and a third sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st June 2011, lot 3767. 

Large figures of this type were created in section molds, hand finished before glazing in the sancai or fahua palettes, probably at specifically-built kilns. Compare large sancai-glazed figures of Buddha, such as two figures seated on elaborate thrones, from the Avery Brundage collection, now in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, illustrated in Rene-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argence (ed.), Chinese, Korea and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection 1974, pls. 170 and 174; and another, dated to 1494, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, published in Warren Cox, The Book of Pottery and Porcelain, vol. 1, New York, 1947, pl. 151. See also two large standing figures of assistants to the Judge of Hell, in the British Museum, London, included in Jessica Harrison-Hall, op. cit., pls 19:3 and 19:4.