A rare stucco head of an elephant, Yuan / early Ming dynasty

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1st April 2019, lot 3076.

This head of an elephant is remarkable for its naturalistic appearance and lifelike expression. Its bright, intelligent eyes and its raised trunk swinging to the side, lend the figure great vividness. Carved figures of elephants are known since the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). The oldest discovered example is a stone boulder fashioned in a low-relief elephant shape, from the Western Han (206 BC-AD 9) tomb of general Huo Qubing (140-117 BC) near Xianyang, Shaanxi province. Considered an exotic animal, the sculpture represented one of the distant regions the general had conquered. Fulfilling a more protective role, is a stone elephant figure standing close to the Eastern Han (AD 25-220) imperial tombs at Luoyang, Henan Province. Although not directly appearing on the spirit road leading towards the tomb complex, it is thought, nevertheless, to have been part of the entrance to the mausoleum area, see Ann Paludan, The Chinese Spirit Road, New Haven and London, 1991, fig. 40.

From the Song dynasty (AD 960-1279) onwards, we see elephants more frequently included in spirit roads, see for example, a figure along the spirit way leading to the Northern Song (960-1127) mausoleum of Emperor Zhezong (personal name Zhao Xu, 1076-1100), in Henan province, illustrated in Shi Yan, Zhongguo diaosu shi tulu [Illustrated history of Chinese sculpture] vol. 4, Shanghai, 1990, pl. 1597.

Contrary to the solemn bearing of tomb and spirit road sculptures, the present example’s lively pose points to a different nature. The figure recalls the elephant depictions found in temples and in cave complexes. There, it represents the White Elephant, who occupies a prominent place in Buddhism. Revered as a symbol of strength and wisdom, it functions as guardian of the Temple of Buddha. Featuring in the Lotus Sutra as the mount of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra (‘Universal Virtue’) or Puxian in China, the White Elephant is as well a symbolic image of integrity.

Both in paintings and in stone relief carvings, the White Elephant is portrayed with the Bodhisattva seated on a lotus base on its back, striding amidst a holy entourage, see for example, a relief carving in cave 6 of the Yungang caves at Datong, Shanxi province, illustrated in Zhongguo shiku. Yungang shiku [Rock caves in China. Yungang caves], Beijing, 1991, pl. 74; and another in the Longxing temple near the town of Zhengding, Hebei province, dated to the second year of Emperor Duanzong’s reign (equivalent to 989) in the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), published in Shi Yan, op. cit., pl. 1779. A free-standing sculpture of a six-tusked White Elephant, can be viewed, for example, in the Wannian temple at Mount Emei, Sichuan province, dated to the fifth year of the Taiping Xingguo era (equivalent to 980) of the Northern Song dynasty, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji. Diaosu bian. 5: Wudai Song diaosu [The complete series of Chinese art. Sculpture section, vol. 5: Five Dynasties and Song sculpture], Beijing, 1988, pl. 41; another sculpture in the round, in cave 136 of the Dazu grottoes in Sichuan, attributed to the Shaoxing period (1131-1162) of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) is published in Shi Yan, op. cit., pl. 1716.

It is rare to find a Ming stucco figure of an animal, as opposed to the more commonly found figures of humans and deities. As an auspicious emblem of Buddhist, the present model of an elephant would have been a rare and luxuriant creation.

The dating of this lot is consistent with the result of a CIRAM Carbon-14 test, no. 1119-OA-442Z.