17th century
The God of War vividly portrayed with a fierce expression, standing on crashing waves with his left hand raised, wearing a billowing scarf over a highly detailed chain mail armour bound with straps issuing from the mouths of monster masks and a cloth cap set behind an elaborate headdress inset with hard stones and cast with a pair of dragons confronting a flaming pearl. 30cm (11 7/8in) high.

Footnotes

十七世紀銅鎏金關帝立像

Provenance: acquired from Andrew Stuart-Robertson Oriental and Fine Arts, Paddington, New South Wales, on 14 November 1998
The Reid Collection

來源：
於1998年11月14日購自新南威爾斯帕丁頓古董商Andrew Stuart-Robertson Oriental and Fine Arts
Reid 收藏

Guandi is the deified form of Guan Yu (died 220 AD). He acquired great popularity in later times, as one of the heroes in the vernacular novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written during the Ming dynasty. Guan Yu's support of the Han warlord Liu Bei's quest of continuing the Han state in Shu (present-day Sichuan Province) earned him the reputation of an exemplary model of faithfulness and reliance. The God was also worshipped as protector of merchants, and shrines dedicated to him were known as Temples of Literature and Martial Arts.

Gilt-bronze standing figures of Guandi, denoting such exquisitely refined details are rare. A stylistically related, but seated, gilt-bronze figure of Guandi, 17th/18th century, exhibiting comparable facial features, detailed armour and elaborate headdress, as the present lot, was sold at Christie's New York, 24 March 2004, lot 84.

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- Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art