Coco Li
Cataloguer / Sale Coordinator, Chinese Works of Art
Lot 19
A CARVED LIMESTONE SEATED FIGURE OF MAITREYA Northern Wei Dynasty or later
14 December 2023, 17:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$51,200 inc. premium
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Dessa Goddard
Senior Vice President, US Head, Asian Art Group
Michael Hughes
Vice President and Head of Department
I-Hsuan Chen
Senior Specialist
A CARVED LIMESTONE SEATED FIGURE OF MAITREYA
Northern Wei Dynasty or later
The seated cross-legged deity flanked to either side by seated lions each turning their heads upwards towards Maitreya who extends his (real) left hand to the lions head on his left and holds his right hand in tarjani mudra, the robes depicted in a schematic fashion with the folds cursorily cut into a flat, pattern-like arrangement that flow down the arms and body to the crossed legs, the slender angular head carved with aquiline nose, high arched brows, pendulous ears and all below a tall crown centered by a seated Amitabha Buddha.
24 x 21 1/2in (61 x 54.3cm);
27 x 25 x 5 1/4in (69 x 63 1/2 x 13 1/2 cm) with base
The seated cross-legged deity flanked to either side by seated lions each turning their heads upwards towards Maitreya who extends his (real) left hand to the lions head on his left and holds his right hand in tarjani mudra, the robes depicted in a schematic fashion with the folds cursorily cut into a flat, pattern-like arrangement that flow down the arms and body to the crossed legs, the slender angular head carved with aquiline nose, high arched brows, pendulous ears and all below a tall crown centered by a seated Amitabha Buddha.
24 x 21 1/2in (61 x 54.3cm);
27 x 25 x 5 1/4in (69 x 63 1/2 x 13 1/2 cm) with base
Footnotes
北魏或更晚 青石彌勒菩薩像
Provenance
Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, 11-12 November 1938, lot 217
Sotheby Parke-Bernet Inc., New York, 1-2 June 1977, lot 370
來源
紐約Parke-Bernet Galleries拍賣行，1938年11月11-12日，拍品編號217
紐約蘇富比Parke-Bernet拍賣行，1977年6月1-2日，拍品編號370
This image of Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future, is typical of the Northern Wei style (386-534) as it developed at the Longmen cave complex during the fifth and sixth centuries. Located outside the Wei capital of Luoyang in Honan province, sculptural activities at Longmen lasted from approximately 500 to 750. This image displays a non-Chinese seated posture with legs crossed at the ankles. The torso is slender and elongated and the thin garment has been depicted in a schematic fashion with folds, scarves and hemlines organized into a flat, pattern-like arrangement typical of the Northern Wei style.
Another seated Maitreya figure of this type with guardian lions from the Fogg Art Museum was included in the China Institute exhibition and accompanying catalogue by Annette Juliano, Art of the Six Dynasties, New York, 1975, no. 50
See also Lung Men Shih K'u, Wenwu, 1961, pls. 23 and 24 for similar figures in situ at Longmen, Honan Province.
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