A gilt-lacquered wood figure of Buddha, Qing dynasty, 18th century

Texas Private collects ion.

This sensuously modeled figure of Buddha belongs stylistically to a group of gilt-lacquer Buddhist figures produced during the reigns of the Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors for the various Tibetan Buddhist temples and sites around the area of Chengde, outside Beijing. The Kangxi Emperor initially developed the site as a hunting ground and meeting place for his interactions with the various Mongol leaders that paid homage to him as emperor. Under the reign of his grandson, the Qianlong Emperor, the site was expanded massively, with the construction of various temples to satisfy not only his fervent Buddhist worship but also that of the Mongol and Tibetan dignitaries that came to visit.

Large, gilt-lacquered Buddhist images were often the central images of worship at the temples of Chengde, including three massive figures of Buddha in the Zongyin Hall of the Pule Si, finalized in 1766, and illustrated by Du Jiang in Buddhist Art from Rehol: Tibetan Buddhist images and ritual objects from the Qing dynasty Summer Palace at Chengde, Taipei, 1999, p. 29; however, numerous other smaller images were also commissioned to fill the many halls. Such works, including the present example, follow closely delineated iconometric principles, and as such almost all images of Buddha from this period have nearly identical features, including the almost triangular nose and the elongated, pinched-waist torso.

Two very closely-related examples, slightly smaller in size than the present work, reside in the collects ion of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Compendium of collects ions in the Palace Museum, Sculpture, vol. 9, Beijing, 2011, pls 141 and 143. See, as well, another closely-related example retaining its original double lotus base sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th October 2010, lot 2795.