Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt-Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection

Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt-Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 3506. A gilt-bronze figure of an Apsara Northern Wei – Northern Qi dynasty | 北魏末至北齊 鎏金銅飛天像.

A gilt-bronze figure of an Apsara Northern Wei – Northern Qi dynasty | 北魏末至北齊 鎏金銅飛天像

Auction Closed

October 12, 12:42 PM GMT

Estimate

50,000 - 70,000 HKD

Lot Details

Description

A gilt-bronze figure of an Apsara 

Northern Wei – Northern Qi dynasty

北魏末至北齊 鎏金銅飛天像


the small fragment depicting an apsara, with the face set in a serene and contemplative expression, her hair and sleeves seemingly fluttering in the wind, the arms positioned to display an intention of progressing forward, the posture dynamic and curvaceous, depicted leaning to the right in a dramatic fashion with a straight back and open chest, elevated on a sled-like mounting that mimics the arced contours of her body

w. 6.9 cm

Collection of Elizabeth Stafford (1928-2018).

J.J. Lally & Co., New York.


伊麗莎白．斯塔福德（1928-2018年）收藏

Odyssey of an Art Collector: Unity in Diversity – 5000 Years of Art, Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans, 1966, cat. no. 88


《Odyssey of an Art Collector: Unity in Diversity – 5000 Years of Art》，Delgado Museum of Art（現紐奧良藝術博物館），紐奧良，1966年，編號88

This delightful small fragment is of an apsara, attributed to the Northern Wei - Northern Qi dynasty. Apsaras, divine female spirits of the clouds and water, were used to enliven and animate votive altars, Buddhist triad groups, and cave temples. In these contexts, the representation of the principal subjects, particularly the Buddha with attendant bodhisattvas and arhats, was iconographically proscribed by sutras and contemporaneous religious treatises. By contrast, the treatment of secondary elements in sculptures and cave paintings allowed for greater artistic freedom. It is in this peripheral imagery that artists expressed their unique creative vision, and experimented with the boundaries of pictorial convention. Another gilt-bronze sculpture of an apsara in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, F88-37/5, is illustrated in Hugo Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Tokyo, 1967, pl. 97.