Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt-Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection

Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt-Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 3523. A rare gilt-bronze figure of thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara Tang – Liao dynasty | 唐至遼 鎏金銅千手千眼觀世音菩薩立像.

A rare gilt-bronze figure of thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara Tang – Liao dynasty | 唐至遼 鎏金銅千手千眼觀世音菩薩立像

Auction Closed

October 12, 12:42 PM GMT

Estimate

200,000 - 300,000 HKD

Lot Details

Description

A rare gilt-bronze figure of thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara

Tang – Liao dynasty

唐至遼 鎏金銅千手千眼觀世音菩薩立像


the richly gilded figure depicting Avalokiteshvara in his “thousand-arm’ form” standing on a tall black rectangular pedestal, naturalistically cast with serene and compassionate expression, the principal hands before the chest held in anjali mudra while the attendant hands radiate from the body, each held in various mudras grasping a different implement signifying power, the feet of the deity flanked by the bottom of the robe, flaring out symmetrically on both sides in a dramatic fashion, the head adorned with an elaborately decorated crown encircled with a beaded hem

h. 5.7 cm

Bonhams New York, 12th September 2016, lot 8059.



Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection, Museum of Replica Handbags s, Houston, 2017-2018. 


《Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection》，休士頓美術館，休士頓，2017-2018年

Beatrice Chan, 'Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection at the Museum of Replica Handbags s, Houston', Arts of Asia, January/February 2018, pp. 58-65.


Beatrice Chan，〈Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection at the Museum of Replica Handbags s, Houston〉，《Arts of Asia》，2018年1至2月，頁58-65

This rare small gilt-bronze figure depicts Avalokiteshvara in his ‘thousand-arm' form. Avalokiteshvara is the bodhisattva of compassion and protector of the world. Meher McArthur in Reading Buddhist Art, London, 2002, p. 43, states that Avalokiteshvara is the ‘subject of the 24th chapter of the Lotus Sutra, in which he is described as looking in all directions in order to attempt to save all beings from the suffering of the world.' The ‘one-thousand-armed' Avalokiteshvara belongs to esoteric Buddhism with the arms symbolising his many powers for saving the world and helping followers to gain enlightenment. The central pair of arms is in anjali mudra, the prayer gesture, while the outer arms are in various mudras or hold objects that represent his powers. Lokesh Chandra in The Thousand-armed Avalokitesvara, New Delhi, 1988, p. 48, explains that the thousand-armed depiction of Avalokiteshvara first appeared in Chinese art during the reign of the first Tang emperor, Tang Gaozu (AD 618-626), before being transmitted throughout Central Asia and Japan.