Property of a New York Private Collector
A polychromed cast-iron figure of a bodhisattva, Ming dynasty
Live auction begins on:
March 25, 01:30 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
cast to the lower back with a partial inscription reading Wen cun zhi, wood base (2)
Height 35¼ in., 89.5 cm
Collection of Armand Trampitsch (1890-1975).
Galerie Jacques Barrère, Paris, 1985.
Exposition, Galerie Jacques Barrère, Paris, 1985.
Extant examples of Ming-dynasty cast-iron figures in their entirety are relatively rare, particularly those of the scale of the present work. Cast in several sections and joined at the seams, such figures would have required an inordinate amount of material at a time when metals such as iron and bronze were in very short supply. Compare the present work with a cast-iron figure of Bodhidharma (Ch. Damo) of similar size in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession no. 1975.413), illustrated on the museum's website. See, also, a cast-iron head of a bodhisattva with similar treatment of the face and crown, also in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession no. 24.13.58), illustrated by Alan Priest in Chinese Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1944, p. 49, cat. no. 72, pl. 123.