Highlights of Hong Kong Asian Art Week

From the collection of the Bodhimanda Foundation – a non-profit organisation dedicated to Tantric Buddhist research and education – this 74 cm gilt-bronze sculpture is the largest recorded Chaturbhuja Mahakala from the early Ming dynasty. Vajrayana Buddhism was a form of Tantric Buddhism that originated in India in the 5th century CE and over the following centuries took hold in neighbouring countries such as Tibet. It captivated the early Ming emperors, including the Xuande Emperor (r.1425–1435), who commissioned numerous sculptures and paintings that openly paid tribute to Tibetan art. This Chaturbhuja Mahakala figure was a highly important Imperial commission. In Tibet, where Buddhism was closely linked to political power, images of protector deities like the Chaturbhuja Mahakala, with his four arms that remove obstacles, augment wisdom, protect the Dharma (Buddhist teachings) and destroy ignorance, were frequently placed in monastic and administrative buildings to ensure the protection of the state and maintain political stability. Like the Bodhimanda Foundation’s monumental figures of Panjarnata Mahakala and Kapaladhara Hevajra that were auctioned in November 2024, this Chaturbhuja Mahakala was likely created for a Tibetan Buddhist monastery along the Sino-Tibetan border. The proceeds from the sale of this magnificent statue will fund a permanent museum-quality display for the Bodhimanda Collection.

The relics unearthed at Piprahwa in 1898 by the Englishman William Caxton Peppé are beyond doubt the most important relics of early Buddhism. Piprahwa is widely believed to be the site of ancient Kapilavastu, the seat of the Buddha’s family clan in northern India. The Buddha’s final days and his instructions to his followers to enshrine his cremated remains, recorded in early Buddhist texts such as the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, sparked the beginnings of the cult of relic worship in Buddhism. This magnificent group of relic gems and precious metals, comprising amethyst, aquamarine, carnelian, citrine, garnet, rock crystal, pearls, shell, coral, granulated gold and embossed sheets of gold and silver, were buried with the bones of the Historical Buddha for more than two millennia. After being discovered and apportioned to Peppé and his descendants, they have been exhibited around the world including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Rubin Museum in New York, Museum Rietberg in Zurich, the National Museum of Korea and the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore.

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This sublime limestone sculpture of the smiling Buddha was formerly in the collection of the Minnesota Museum of Art. Long earlobes convey his extraordinary wisdom and spiritual advancement, whilst his neatly coiled hairbun, the ushnisha, points to his enlightened state. The Northern Zhou dynasty (557-581) absorbed the style of India's Gupta Dynasty (c.319-550). This Buddha's head is typical of Gupta art: carved in the round, with his domed bun, rounded cheeks, and delicate facial features commonly found in Northern Zhou statuary. Ancient Chinese belief in the power of imagery was deeply rooted in the general population for many centuries, and the creator of this sculpture would have devoted his efforts towards capturing the spiritual power of Buddhahood, the state of awakening to which all Buddhists aspire. A similar Buddha head dating to the Sui dynasty (581-618) can be found in the National Museum of China, Beijing, whilst a similar but smaller standing Buddha statue dating from the Northern Zhou to the Sui dynasty is housed in the Tokyo National Museum.

This monumental silk scroll presents an intriguing fusion of artistic styles. The craggy rocks, gnarled branches and flora display traditional Chinese techniques, with the scroll bearing Jin Tingbiao's inscription and seal. However, the bright-eyed goats, with their vivid and realistically rendered fur, suggest a second artist's involvement – one versed in Western painting methods. Imperial records confirm that the Italian Jesuit painter Giuseppe Castiglione (who took the name Lang Shining) – who served the Qing court under the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors – was initially commissioned to paint The Blue Goats on white silk. The following year, Jin Tingbiao, a court painter known for his figures and flowers, was ordered to create a copy. The connection between the two versions is verified by Castiglione's signed copy, now in Taipei's National Palace Museum, which shows distinct similarities in the depiction of the goats. These paintings demonstrate the successful amalgamation of Eastern and Western artistic traditions during this pivotal period of Chinese art history, and exemplify the collaborative mode of cultural exchange common in the Qing Imperial court. Both paintings were displayed at Huafangzhai (the "Water Palace") in the Forbidden City's Western Garden, an exquisite pavilion where the Qianlong Emperor entertained foreign envoys and viewed artwork with his court painters. This present scroll later belonged to Guo Baochang (1867-1942), Yuan Shikai's General Supervisor of Ceramic Affairs and a renowned porcelain expert.

This superb ruby-red bery "purple-gold" bowl with its remarkable golden sheen was the achievement of the Forbidden City workshops established by the Kangxi Emperor (r.1662-1722). With ambitions to participate in and expedite China’s technical progress on multiple fronts, from ceramics to weaponry, the Kangxi Emperor assembled China’s foremost scientific minds and most accomplished craftsmen. This bowl’s inventive design, with curved baroque panelling framing four naturalistic blooms representing the seasons – a pomegranate blossom, a bright pink peony, a hollyhock and a deep purple camellia – adds a stylistic flourish with four vivid royal blue flowers viewed simultaneously from different angles. The subtle ruby-red berry “purple-gold” in Chinese ceramics was achieved using a new enamelling technique and Purple of Cassius, a Western technique traditionally for colouring glass. The deep egg yellow and vivid royal blue hues were only found on the finest and earliest Kangxi falangcai wares, versus the much milder yellows and blues seen on contemporary ‘famille verte’ wares from Jingdezhen and on later falangcai. The emperor’s pride in his creation is affirmed by the Kangxi yu zhi reign mark, meaning ‘made to imperial order’, or ‘for imperial use’ rather than the common ‘nian zhi’ (‘made in the years of’). The yu zhi mark was one of the rarest porcelain reign marks ever used.

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This seal once belonged to the Qianlong Emperor, one of the most important imperial patrons of the arts in Chinese history. Inscribed Qianlong yubi (‘in the imperial hand of Qianlong’), it was likely the Emperor’s personal emblem, used to sign his own calligraphy and works of art including bian’e, massive calligraphic tablets usually suspended high above palace thrones. Carved from a virtually spotless stone of creamy white, this seal’s impressively large size of nine cm high and 12.5 cm wide is unmatched among all other Qianlong seals. The unusual design of intertwined dragons, writhing powerfully with raised heads looking outwards, is an unambiguous declaration of power and authority. This seal also stands out for its pedigree. Likely carved at the beginning of the Qing empire, during the rule of his great-great-grandfather, Huang Taiji or the Taizong Emperor (r.1636-1643), the Qianlong Emperor’s repurposing of this jade seal as his personal emblem honours his Manchu lineage and also highlights his respect for the Han Chinese literati tradition. This seal was once owned by the founder of the Musée Guimet in Paris, the French industrialist, philanthropist and composer Emile Guimet (1836-1918).

 Three blossoming floral branches and three fruiting branches on this ganlanping (or ‘olive-shaped’) vase bear a richly auspicious symbolism in Chinese culture. Often referred to as the fruits of ‘abundance’, the peach embodies the wish for longevity while the amply-seeded pomegranate and gourd epitomise hope for many descendants. ‘Heaping and piling’ – the once-unintentional spotting of early cobalt pigments – had become a highly desirable feature of blue-and-white designs by the High Qing period, and was a nod to the golden age of Ming dynasty Chinese porcelain. Imperial craftsmen simulated a rich, mottled surface with uneven dottings of underglaze blue, further accentuating the three-dimensionality of the vase’s moulded elements. To date, only one other vase of this size and design – thought to be the pair to this vase – has been recorded, originating from the collection of Evelyn Annenberg Hall and sold in 2013 for HK$46 million. A pair of similar vases are held in the Palace Museum, Beijing and Huaihaitang Collection respectively.

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 This enchanting guan jar tells two parallel stories of heaven and earth. Painted with incredible precision in electric tones of cobalt blue, it showcases a creativity unparalleled for many centuries. Whirling through the clouds, a pair of fearsome four-clawed dragons with gnarled antler-horns and hair fluttering from their scaly legs soar above six views of delicately inked peony blooms and scrolling foliage. This jar nods to the painted handscroll, its images unfurling as it is slowly rotated in the hand. To date, no other jars of this extraordinary dragon design are known. This period of artistic experimentation following the arrival of cobalt pigments in China saw a new world of delicate, variegated painting open up for the Yuan Imperial court and its potters. This jar, with its bolder and more dramatic rendering compared to its peers, is an extraordinary testament to the artistic freedom and brilliance of the early Jingdezhen potters.
 

With its playful incised design of young boys playing amongst scrolling vines—a motif thought by scholars to have derived from Indian cave paintings and Tang dynasty Buddhist imagery of reborn souls in the form of children seated on lotus flowers—the popularity of this symbolic image was undoubtedly linked to the age-old Chinese hope for numerous sons and familial abundance. While this motif is commonly found on silverware, bronzes, textiles, jades, and ceramics, it is rare to find qingbai (from the Chinese for “green” and “white”) vases decorated with this scene, which more commonly adorned smaller surfaces such as bowls and dishes, The alluring pale blue-green glaze complements the exquisite white porcelain body beneath, a porcelain so refined and pure that it was known as raoyu (“the jade of Rao”), after the region where the Jingdezhen kilns were located. It is probable that these wares served as the foundation for China’s blue-and-white porcelain tradition from the 14th century onward. Although the earliest qingbai pieces were modelled on Yue ware, by the Five Dynasties and Northern Song periods the Jingdezhen potters often looked to Ding ware for aesthetic inspiration - as evident from the confident carved lines and combed background that throw the boisterous figures into relief.