A rare gilt-bronze figure of Laojun Tang dynasty | 唐 鎏金銅老君坐像

This extremely rare figure, cast seated cross-legged on an octagonal base holding a fan, with a small scholar’s cap and pointed beard, appears to depict Laojun or Daode Tianzun (Celestial Worthy of the Way and Its Virtue), one of the three highest gods in the Daoist pantheon. Two similar gilt-bronze Daoist figures from the Tang dynasty, each modeled with the same full beard, hat and three-legged armrest, are illustrated in Saburo Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture. A Study Based on Bronze and Stone Statues other than from Cave Temples, Tokyo, 1966, p. 312, figs. c and d. See also a stone figure of Laozi, similarly depicted and also holding a fan, attributed to the Tang dynasty, in the Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, exhibited in Taoism and the Arts of China, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 2000, cat. no. 39. Yet another comparable figure of a Ming dynasty Daoist immortal Laozi with a full beard resting atop a three-legged armrest is found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Children to Immortals: Figural Representations in Chinese Art exhibition from 9th August 2018 - 3rd January 2021, accession number 1997.139.