An extremely rare gilt-bronze figure of Amitabha Buddha Sui – early Tang dynasty | 隋至唐初 鎏金銅阿彌陀佛坐像

Zondewan, Brussels, 8th April 1916.

Collection of Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949).

Collection of Raymonde Féron-Stoclet (1897-1963).

Eskenazi, Ltd., London, March 2003.

Zondewan，布魯塞爾，1916年4月8日

Adolphe Stoclet（1871-1949年）收藏

Raymonde Féron-Stoclet（1897-1963年）收藏

埃斯卡納齊，倫敦，2003年3月

Leigh Ashton, An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Sculpture, London, 1924, pl. XL, fig. 2.

H.F.E. Visser, Asiatic Art in Private Collections of Holland and Belgium, Amsterdam, 1948, pl. 79, no. 154.

Georges A. Salles and Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt, Collection Adophe Stoclet, Brussels, 1956, pp. 384-385.

Jacques Van Goldsenhoven, Héros et Divinités de la Chine, Brussels, 1971, pl. 71

Leopold Swergold, Thoughts on Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes, Aventura, 2014, cat. no. 17.

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.

Leigh Ashton，《An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Sculpture》，倫敦，1924年，圖版 XL，圖2

H.F.E. Visser，《Asiatic Art in Private Collections of Holland and Belgium》，阿姆斯特丹，1948年，圖版79，編號154

Georges A. Salles 及 Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt，《Collection Adophe Stoclet》，布魯塞爾，1956年，頁384-385

Jacques Van Goldsenhoven，《Héros et Divinités de la Chine》，布魯塞爾，1971年，圖版71

Leopold Swergold，《Thoughts on Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes》，2014年，圖版17

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58-65

This extremely rare richly gilded figure depicts Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, who rules over the Western Paradise where the faithful are reborn on lotus blossoms. He is depicted seated with legs crossed in padmasana, eyes closed and face radiating an expression of serene meditation. His neatly cropped hair reveals the prominent ushnisha. Seated figures of the Sui dynasty are rarely found. The Sui dynasty’s brief unification of China produced a new sculptural synthesis, a majestic style of restrained elegance and controlled sensuality, which formed the basis of Tang Dynasty Buddhist sculpture. Here, the elegance of the richly gilded sculpture, which is devoid of the elaborate jewelry and exhibits a more slender face and body, suggests a Sui date.

The Sui date can also be corroborated by close comparison of the current sculpture with the figure of Amitabha at the centre of an altarpiece in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, dated to the 13th year of the Kaihuang era (AD 593). The Boston altarpiece was originally excavated in the late 19th century in the vicinity of the Zhaozhou bridge, Hebei, entered the collection of Duan Fang, and was later acquired by Mrs Walter Scott Fitz, who donated it to the museum, accession no. 22.407. Both figures share the same sensational naturalism of casting, capturing the unwavering meditative posture of the Buddha, with the same distinctive posture in abhaya mudra, and similar intricately cast treatment of the drapery.

A century ago, this figure of Amitayus was in the collection of Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949), a Belgian industrialist, banker and famous art collector, whose villa in Brussels had been commissioned, down to the last detail, from Josef Hoffman (1870-1956), important architect and co-founder of the influential art and design cooperative, Wiener Werkstätte. It is considered the most important intact ensemble preserved from the ‘Jugendstil’ period of the early twentieth century and inscribed by UNESCO as a world heritage site. Stoclet collected Western as well as non-Western art from around the world, including many major Chinese works. The current sculpture has an illustrious publication and exhibition history, first exhibited at the Municipal Museum in Amsterdam in 1925, and extensively published since Leigh Ashton’s groundbreaking 1924 book on Chinese sculpture. 

此尊鎏金富麗，塑阿彌陀佛，即無量光佛，其所在西方極樂世界內，一切住民皆由信眾托蓮花化生。阿彌陀佛結跏趺坐，閉目凝神，面容靜定，髮際一絲不苟，肉髻高顯周圓。隋代坐像稀見無多；大一統後，造像開新局、集大成，以端秀、豐腴為唐代造像奠定風格。此像通體鎏金，素無珠飾，頭身略顯清瘦，乃隋代面貌。

隋之斷代亦有例證，比較一尊阿彌陀佛，居一造像組正中，波士頓美術館藏，開皇十三年（593年）造，至十九世紀末於河北趙州橋附近出土，先為端方所藏，後由 Walter Scott Fitz 夫人購下，又捐予該美術館，編號22.407。對比兩尊，皆施無畏印，且衣紋相類。