A Gilt-bronze votive figure of Padmapani, Eastern Wei dynasty, inscribed with a date corresponding to 544
東魏武定二年 鎏金銅蓮華手觀音立像
Details
A Gilt-bronze votive figure of Padmapani
Eastern Wei dynasty, inscribed with a date corresponding to 544
東魏武定二年 鎏金銅蓮華手觀音立像
銘文：
武定二年十一月廿日故記上曲陽縣人郭政歎造像一區
Height 6⅝ in., 16.8 cm.
PROVENANCE
Collection of Sato Gengen (1888-1963).
Collection of Sakamoto Gorō (1923-2016).
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5th October 2016, lot 3212.
來源
佐藤玄々（1888-1963）收藏
坂本五郎（1923-2016）收藏
香港蘇富比2016年10月5日，編號3212
EXHIBITED
Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2017-2018.
展覽
《Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection》，休士頓美術館，休士頓，2017至2018年
LITERATURE
Beatrice Chan, "Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston", Arts of Asia, January/February 2018, pp 58-65.
出版
Beatrice Chan，〈Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston〉，《Arts of Asia》，2018年1至2月，頁58至65
This rare gilt-bronze figure depicts the bodhisattva Padmapani, an emanation of Avalokiteshvara. The inscription dates it to the Eastern Wei dynasty, which ruled northern China from 534 to 550 after the disintegration of the Northern Wei (386-534). Although it still retains strong stylistic influences from India, the treatment of the Eastern Wei Padmapani has become much more sinicized than Northern Wei examples, with less distinct Gandharan influences on key features of the sculpture, such as the drapery. Where Northern Wei figures utilize the Indian mode of representation with graceful curvilinear contours, lithe body, swaying hips and gently tilted head, the current figure stands tall and straight. It is an extremely fine sculpture, with an intricately incised design of the Buddha on the reverse. Another gilt-bronze figure of Padmapani, dated to 543, in the Tokyo National Museum, is illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 117. See also an Eastern Wei gilt-bronze figure of Maitreya, dated to 536, formerly in the collection of Duanfang (1861-1911) and now in the collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadephia (object no. C355.1), illustrated by Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, New York, 1925, pl. 158.
Eastern Wei dynasty, inscribed with a date corresponding to 544
東魏武定二年 鎏金銅蓮華手觀音立像
銘文：
武定二年十一月廿日故記上曲陽縣人郭政歎造像一區
Height 6⅝ in., 16.8 cm.
PROVENANCE
Collection of Sato Gengen (1888-1963).
Collection of Sakamoto Gorō (1923-2016).
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5th October 2016, lot 3212.
來源
佐藤玄々（1888-1963）收藏
坂本五郎（1923-2016）收藏
香港蘇富比2016年10月5日，編號3212
EXHIBITED
Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2017-2018.
展覽
《Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection》，休士頓美術館，休士頓，2017至2018年
LITERATURE
Beatrice Chan, "Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston", Arts of Asia, January/February 2018, pp 58-65.
出版
Beatrice Chan，〈Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston〉，《Arts of Asia》，2018年1至2月，頁58至65
This rare gilt-bronze figure depicts the bodhisattva Padmapani, an emanation of Avalokiteshvara. The inscription dates it to the Eastern Wei dynasty, which ruled northern China from 534 to 550 after the disintegration of the Northern Wei (386-534). Although it still retains strong stylistic influences from India, the treatment of the Eastern Wei Padmapani has become much more sinicized than Northern Wei examples, with less distinct Gandharan influences on key features of the sculpture, such as the drapery. Where Northern Wei figures utilize the Indian mode of representation with graceful curvilinear contours, lithe body, swaying hips and gently tilted head, the current figure stands tall and straight. It is an extremely fine sculpture, with an intricately incised design of the Buddha on the reverse. Another gilt-bronze figure of Padmapani, dated to 543, in the Tokyo National Museum, is illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 117. See also an Eastern Wei gilt-bronze figure of Maitreya, dated to 536, formerly in the collection of Duanfang (1861-1911) and now in the collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadephia (object no. C355.1), illustrated by Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, New York, 1925, pl. 158.