Necklace and bracelet, circa 1880. Gold, silver, multicolored sapphires and diamonds. Length necklace 43 cm (16.9 in.) Length bracelet 17 cm (6.7 in.). Véronique Bamps (Stand 274). © TEFAF 2018

A figure of Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy) dressed in elaborately decorated flowing robes which she holds up with her left hand and in her right hand she has a large basket containing a fish, China, Ming Dynasty, 16th-17th century. Lacquer and gilt wood, 88 x 42 x 28 cm (34.8 x 16.8 x 11.3 in.). Gregg Baker Asian Art (Stand 260). © TEFAF 2018

A figure of Amida Buddha standing on an elaborately decorated lotus pedestal base with the hands in the an-i-in mudra, Japan, Kamakura period, 12th-13th century. Gilt wood. Height 84 cm (33.3 in.) (including stand). Gregg Baker Asian Art (Stand 260). © TEFAF 2018

A repoussé half figure of Guanyin (Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara) draped in a flowing robe, tied at the waist with a bow, Sino-Tibetan, Qing Dynasty, 18th century. Gilt copper. Total height 80 cm (31.8 in.). Gregg Baker Asian Art (Stand 260). © TEFAF 2018

Provenance: Previously in the collection of Ross Levett, Maine USA, and E. Van Vredenburgh, Brussels

A two-fold screen depicting keshi (poppies), Japan, Edo Period, 17th century. Ink, colour and gold leaf on paper, 162.5 x 172.5 cm (64.3 x 68 in.). Gregg Baker Asian Art (Stand 260). © TEFAF 2018

A four-fold screen depicting plum trees, Japan, Taisho Period, 20th century. Lacquer, colour and silver leaf on paper, 187.5 x 370.5 cm (74 x 146 in.). Sealed lower right 'Sho'. Gregg Baker Asian Art (Stand 260). © TEFAF 2018

Takahiro Atarashi, A black flower vessel of geometric form, Japan, 20th century. Kanshitsu (dry lacquer), 38.5 x 23.5 x 9.5 cm (15.3 x 9.5 x 3.8 in.). Signed 'Takahiro'. Gregg Baker Asian Art (Stand 260). © TEFAF 2018

Masazo Kawai, A red flower vessel of abstract form, Japan, 20th century. Kanshitsu (dry lacquer), 19.5 x 59 x 14.5 cm (7.8 x 23.3 x 5.8 in.). Signed 'Masa saku' (made by Masa). Gregg Baker Asian Art (Stand 260). © TEFAF 2018

Kokuta Suda (1906 - Japan - 1990), Untitled, Japan, 1959. Gouache and mixed media on paper, 37.5 x 28 cm (15 x 11.3 in.). Signed lower left 'Koku'. Gregg Baker Asian Art (Stand 260). © TEFAF 2018

Juan Sánchez Cotán, Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber, Ca. 1602, San Diego, gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam© The San Diego Museum of Art.

BRUSSELS.- Eighty works by Spanish masters are arranged in a chronological overview, from the 1600s to the present-day. The still life paintings of great and universally acknowledged artists, such as Cotán, Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Miró and Dalí are shown alongside works by their predecessors and contemporaries, providing the most comprehensive picture possible of this genre and its evolutions. 

The still life has been known since time immemorial, but only flourished from the seventeenth century onwards, coming into its own as a separate genre. Spanish still life holds a particular position in the European context. While the connection with the Flemish and Italian models is unmistakeable, the early Spanish specialists of the still life developed a visual language of their own. The plain and simple style of the seventeenth-century ‘bodegones’ represents a peak in the genre’s history. 

Juan Sánchez Cotán (1560–1627). Still Life with Fruit and Vegetables, ca. 1602. Oil on canvas, 69.5 x 96.5 cm. Várez Fisa Collection, Madrid.

Despite its popularity among patrons and at the royal courts, still life painting remained a relatively unappreciated genre. Critics regarded it as an academic exercise in composition, colour and texture, of interest solely for its decorative qualities. And yet it is a fascinating area in the history of art. The huge variety of objects portrayed, such as tables decorated with foods, fruits or game, florals, vanitas paintings, trompe l’oeils, and even cooking scenes – often have symbolic meaning and teem with moralising messages. Still life also experienced a fascinating evolution: from its huge growth and expansion in the lavish Baroque years of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to its avant-garde revival in the early twentieth century. Cubist experiments by artists such as Picasso raised this traditional genre to a new level and made it relevant again. 

It has been almost 20 years since the last exhibition of Spanish still life (Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 1999). This retrospective gives the first ever overview of the four-hundred year evolution of Spain's most beautiful still life paintings and is based on four thematic and chronological clusters per century. The eye-catcher at the exhibition's start in the seventeenth century is a piece by Sánchez Cotán, who is considered the “founding father” of the genre and influenced several generations to come. From the first seventeenth-century bodegones the exhibition shifts its attention to the personal interpretations of artists such as Velázquez, Zurbarán and Goya, before going on to the formal experiments of Picasso, Dalí and Miró and works by contemporary Spanish artists such as Barceló and López. The exhibition focuses on a lesser-known aspect of their work, casting another light on the oeuvres of these prominent Spanish artists by showcasing them in the still life context. 

Diego Velázquez, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, Ca. 1618. Oil on canvas, 60x103.5 cm © National Gallery, London.

Ángel Aterido, who holds a PhD in art history and is an expert on Spanish still life painting, selected the pieces for the exhibition. A good 70% are from private and public Spanish collections (such as Museo Nacional del Prado, Museo Reina Sofía, Royal Academy of Arts Madrid, Museo Nacional d’Art de Catalunye…). Many are on loan from the Prado, which has one of the largest and best collections of Spanish still life paintings in the world. The remainder are on loan from other great museums around the world, such as the National Gallery London, the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, the Louvre Paris, Pompidou Paris, Uffizi Firenze, Museo Nacional de Arte Antiga Lisboa, MOMA NY, San Diego Museum of Art… Spanish Still Life presents a unique opportunity to discover all of these exceptional artworks at a single location. After its first showing in the Centre for Fine Arts Brussels the exhibition will travel to the Musei Reali di Torino. 

Following on from the Spanish Still Life exhibition, BOZAR presents a programme of 17th century Spanish music. First, a concert by contratenor Carlos Mena and the Capilla de Música Santa María, in the Henry Le Boeuf hall on 7 March, and then a performance by Eduardo Egüez, on baroque guitar and lute on 11 April. 

23 FEBRUARY ’18 — 27 MAY ’18

Juan van der Hamen y Léon, Still life : fruit and glass, Ca.1629. Oil on canvas, 87,3 x 130,8 cm © Williams College Museum of Art.

Antonio Ponce, Still Life with Artichokes and a Talavera Vase of Flowers / Bodegón con alcachofas y jarrón de Talavera con flores, Ca. 1650-1660. Oil on canvas, 72 x 94 cm © Collection Albello, Photo: Joaquin Cortes.

Bernardo Lorente Germán, Trompe l’oeil (Tobacco. Allegory of Smell), c. 1750. © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Photo: Franck Raux

Luis Egidio Meléndez, Still Life with Salmon, Lemon and Three Vessels / Bodegón con salmón, limón y recipients, 1772. Oil on canvas, 41 x 62,2 cm© Museo Nacional del Prado.

José López Enguídanos, Still life with birds, melon and bottle of Peralta wine, 1807. Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid.

Francisco de Goya, Dead Turkey / Pavo muerto, 1808 – 1812. Oil on canvas, 45 x 62 cm© Museo Nacional del Prado.

Joan Miró, Still Life with Old Shoe, 1937. © SABAM Belgium 2018

Bodhisattva, Japan, Heian period, 10th century. Wood, 102 x 23 x 16 cm (40.2 x 9 x 6.3 in.). Galerie Jacques Barrere (Stand 122). © TEFAF 2018

Provenance: Robert H. Ellsworth collection; Yoshida Masaaki collection, acquired in 1979.

Double Guardian, China, Chu Kingdom, 4th-3rd century BC. Carved wood and deer antlers, 93 x 60 x 28 cm (36.6 x 23.6 x 11 in.). Galerie Jacques Barrere (Stand 122). © TEFAF 2018

Lot 3071. An Imperial white jade 'Xiumu Jiayin' seal, Qing Dynasty, Jiaqing Period (1796-1820); 6.6 by 6.9 by 6.9 cm., 2 5/8  by 2 3/4  by 2 3/4  in. Estimate 8,000,000 — 12,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 10,840,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's 2013

of square form with a slanted trapezoid top, surmounted by a large single-horn chilong carved in high relief, detailed with bushy eyebrows and flaring nostrils, its strong limbs with well-combed hair and powerful claws, the curling body accentuated by the raised spine terminating in a scrolling bifurcated tail, its head turned backward, facing a smaller chilong with a sinuous body clambering from the opposite side, the square seal face crisply carved in seal script with four characters reading xiumu jiayin (‘Beautiful Tree, Excellent Shade’), the stone of a celadon-tinged white tone with natural inclusions and veining.

Note: This imperial seal once owned by the Jiaqing emperor is carved from a white jade stone with cloudy inclusions which endow the piece with a sense of movement and archaism befitting of the two chilong that surmount it. Delicately modelled in the round, the detailed and sinuous forms of these mythical creatures contrast with the angularity of the top of the seal. The seal face is carefully inscribed with four characters in seal script which read xiumu jiayin, which can be translated as ‘Beautiful tree, excellent shade’.

The Xiumu jiayin is a pavilion in the Qinzheng qinxian (Hall of Diligent Government), which contained a small audience hall and many offices housing different government organisations. The Qinzheng qinxian was the emperor’s chief place for work, where he would read documents and meet with officials, and hold discussions with scholars on occasion. It is the second scene from The Forty Views of the Yuanmingyuan (Yuzhi yuanmingyuan sishijing shi), a series of forty poems composed by the Qianlong emperor that were paired with paintings. Completed in 1744, the paintings are the collaborative work of Tangdai (1673-c. 1752), a Manchu official of the imperial court, and Shen Yuan (active c. 1728-48), a Chinese painter attached to the Qing imperial Painting Academy. Tangdai’s landscapes are rendered in the style of the scholar-amateur Orthodox School while Shen Yuan’s depiction of the architecture displays the influence of European perspective and modelling, which was taught to Academy painters by European Jesuit missionary-artists.

Impression from ‘The Jiaqing Baosou’, Palace Museum, Beijing

Qianlong’s poem for the Qinzheng qianxian can be translated, ‘East of the Zhengdaguangming is the Qingzheng qinxian, in which [I] review the memo to the throne and receive officials at the morning. At noon, I retreat to the back of the screen to practice calligraphy. East of the Qingzheng qinxian is the Baohe, Taihe and Xiushi jiayin, amongst which are pavilions, halls and a luxuriant woods rendering a bright view’. Although Qianlong refers to the Xiushi jiayin, its location in relation to the other buildings shows that this and the Xiumu jiayin actually refer to the same building. 

Lot 3072. An Imperial celadon and brown jade 'Yuqing gong bao' seal, the seal Ming dynasty, the carved inscription Qing dynasty, Jiaqing period (1796-1820): 3.9 by 4.9 by 4.9 cm., 1 1/2  by 7 7/8  by 1 7/8  in. Estimate 8,000,000 — 12,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 10,840,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's 2013

of square form with a slanted trapezoid top, surmounted by a broad arched knop in an archaistic style, the smoothly polished stone of pale celadon colour figured with grey inclusions, further accented by russet shades and dark-red streaks, the seal face crisply and deeply carved in negative seal script with four characters Yuqing gong bao ('Treasure of the Yuqing Palace').

The Jiaqing Han Jade 'Hall of Sound Growth Seal'
Guo Fuxiang

Looking at the seals of the Qing emperors, one finds a pattern in the inscriptions that they select for their seals, namely, that the frequency with which a particular inscription appears on the seals of an emperor is closely related to that emperor’s thoughts, interests, likes, and experiences. In the case of hall seals, if the name of a hall appears repeatedly on seals used by an emperor, that hall has an out-of-the-ordinary connection with that emperor. The Qianlong Emperor and the Hall of Three Rarities is a case in point. The thirteen ‘Hall of Three Rarities’ seals that he had carved lead us to believe that this room was where this cultivated emperor let his fancy take flight from the cares and responsibilities of governing. The Hall of Sound Growth of the Successor (or simply Hall of Sound Growth, Yuqing Gong) served the same purpose for the Jiaqing Emperor, his son (fig. 1). After the Jiaqing Emperor ascended the throne, he had carved for him eight ‘Hall of Sound Growth’ seals, the most that he had carved for any hall. This fact indicates the special significance that this hall had for the emperor. The ‘Hall of Sound Growth seal’ being auctioned by Sotheby’s Hong Kong is one of these eight seals.

Emperor Jiaqing Reading in Garden in Spring, Mid-Qing Dynasty, Detail, Palace Museum, Beijing. After: Witness the Qing Empire: Cutural Relics from the Palace Museum, Macau, 2007, Vol. 3, Cat. No. 82.

This seal was made from Han jade, has a printing surface that is 4.9 cm square, and is 4 cm tall. The upper portion of the body is chamfered inward, and the knob has the shape of a curved roof tile. The inscription consists of four incised seal characters: Yuqing Gong bao ('Hall of Sound Growth seal'). There is a clear description of this seal in Jiaqing baosou ('Catalogue of Jiaqing Seals'), presently held by the Palace Museum in Beijing. A comparison of the seal with the description shows that this seal matches the description in material of composition, shape, size, and style and layout of the seal characters. We can thus affirm that this seal is the actual seal used by the Jiaqing Emperor.

The Jiaqing Emperor, the owner of this seal, had the Manchu name Yongyan. He was the fifth Qing emperor after the Qing conquered China. During his twenty-four-year reign, China enjoyed the legacy of prosperity from the Kangxi period (r. 1662-1722) to the Qianlong period (r. 1736-1795), yet his reign also marked the beginning of the decline of the Qing court. Hence, in many areas China was lapsing into a complicated set of circumstances that is difficult to describe. Such complicated circumstances also appeared in the emperor’s connection with the Hall of Sound Growth.

The Hall of Sound Growth is located north of the Gate of Great Fortune (Jingyun Men) outside the eastern portion of the Forbidden City and southeast of the Palace of Heavenly Purity (Qianqing Gong). It was built in 1679 by the Kangxi Emperor to serve as the sleeping quarters for Crown Prince Yunreng. Later, because Yunreng was overbearing, arrogant, and unfilial, he was stripped of his title of crown prince, moved out of the Hall of Sound Growth, and confined somewhere else. The hall then became the abode of the emperor’s sons and grandsons. The Qianlong Emperor lived there for five years from age twelve, moving to the Palace of Double Glory (Chonghua Gong) only because he got married. During the Qianlong period (1736–1795), this hall became a common residence for young imperial sons and grandsons, and Yongyan too, who at the time was an imperial son, lived there with the emperor’s many other sons and his grandsons for a period of ten years. When he got married, he moved from the Hall of Sound Growth to one of the five courtyards east of the Palace of Heavenly Purity (Qianqing Gong), and later to the Hall of Herb Picking (Xiefang Dian). This was the Jiaqing Emperor’s first connection with the Hall of Sound Growth.

On 15th October 1795, when the Qianlong Emperor had been on the throne for sixty years, he summoned his sons and grandsons, the high-ranking nobility, and the important officers of the court. He then solemnly extracted the secret imperial decision of the crown prince, hidden behind the tablet ‘Zhengda guangming’ (just and honorable) of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, announced that Yongyan was the crown prince, and decided that next year the court would hold a grand formal ceremony for passing on the throne. The grand ceremony was held on 9th February 1796, the first day of the lunar calendar. Qianlong passed the imperial seal on to his son Yongyan, the new Jiaqing Emperor, concluding his sixty-year reign and becoming the only emperor emeritus in the Qing dynasty. By rights, the emperor emeritus, after retiring from the throne, should move to the Palace of Tranquility and Longevity (Ningshou Gong) and yield the Hall of Mental Cultivation (Yangxin Dian) to the new emperor, but because he had lived in the Hall of Mental Cultivation for sixty years, felt comfortable there, and found it convenient for summoning and meeting court officials, he remained there and had the Jiaqing Emperor move into the Hall of Sound Growth, which was renamed the Hall of Continued Virtue (Jide Tang). The Qianlong Emperor had Yongyan move from the Hall of Herb Picking to the Hall of Sound Growth on 18th December 1795, soon after Yongyan became crown prince, and he stayed there until the emperor emeritus passed away on 7th February 1799. Thus, the Jiaqing Emperor again lived in the Hall of Sound Growth, this time for more than three years. This was his second connection with the Hall of Sound Growth.

During the three years that the Jiaqing Emperor lived in the Hall of Sound Growth, every day he had to go from this hall to the Hall of Mental Cultivation to meet the emperor emeritus. “Every day, he had to wait on his meals; with reverence, he had to inquire whether he slept well.” Thus did he have to learn the art of governing from the emperor emeritus. During his three years in the Hall of Sound Growth, he was constrained above and below: above, the emperor emeritus restrained him; below, powerful court officials set up impediments to accomplishing his aims. Especially when he was with the emperor emeritus, the Jiaqing Emperor was reduced to servitude. A Korean official once said, “[The Jiaqing Emperor] sits with the emperor emeritus. When the emperor emeritus smiles, he too smiles; when the emperor emeritus laughs, he too laughs. . . . At banquets, he sits at the emperor emeritus’s side, always looking at the emperor emeritus’s reactions and never once turning around to join in conversation.” He thus was emperor in name only. This new emperor seemed like a student learning his lessons. The Jiaqing Emperor thus had his drive and ambition worn down by such instruction, and this inevitably affected how he managed the reins of government when he later personally governed.

In 1799, when the Jiaqing Emperor personally assumed the reins of government, he moved into the Hall of Mental Cultivation. At the same time, he decided that the Hall of Sound Growth would no longer serve as the residence for the emperor’s sons. Rather, he followed the precedent of the Qianlong Emperor, who made the Palace of Double Glory, where he resided as a youth, his site for relaxing. Likewise, the Jiaqing Emperor reserved the Hall of Sound Growth for himself, to return to in free moments whenever he was so inclined. This measure also helped to maintain the secrecy surrounding the selection of the crown prince. As the Jiaqing Emperor himself said, “I have been especially fortunate to live there [the Hall of Sound Growth] from 1795 to 1799. Now that I live in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, if it were decided that the imperial sons would live in the Hall of Sound Growth, that would cause speculation on who is in and who is out, to the great torment of the imperial sons. Hence, I am reserving the Hall of Sound Growth as a place to which I can repair in free moments.” The emperor thus changed the function of the hall since when it was first built, housing the emperor’s sons, and aggregated it to himself. This was the Jiaqing Emperor’s third connection with the Hall of Sound Growth.

We see from the above that the Hall of Sound Growth had great significance for the Jiaqing Emperor. Hence, it is quite understandable that he would use the name of this hall, which gave him so many memories, to make numerous ‘Hall of Sound Growth’ seals. The emperor made most of these hall seals soon after he ascended the throne and again soon after he personally took control of governing, that is, when he began living in the Hall of Sound Growth and when he changed the function of the hall.

Group of Neith and her son Horus, Egypt, Late Period, circa 664-332 BC. Bronze with gold ??. Height 19 cm. Galerie CYBELE (Stand 435). © TEFAF 2018

Antoine Watteau (Valenciennes, 1684 - Lille, 1721), Study of a man in profile wearing a lopsided-cap. Black chalk and stumping and red chalk, 22.7 x 16.8 cm (8.9 x 6.6 in.). Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd (Stand 310). © TEFAF 2018

Provenance: Léon Ducloux, his sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 14-15 February 1889, lot 168; Georges Dormeuil, (1856-1939) his mark, (L.1146a) probably purchased from Marius Paulme, with Paulme’s label on the old frame giving catalogue number 131, referring to the manuscript catalogue of Dormeuil’s collection); Thence by descent to Pierre Dormeuil in 1957; Private collection, Paris.

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (Valencia, 1863 - Madrid, 1923), Portrait of the painter Francesco Santoro. Oil on canvas, 76 x 48.5 cm (29.9 x 19 in.). Signed, dated and inscribed 'A mi querido/ amigo Santoro/ J. Sorolla/ 87' and bears inscription on the verso 'Francesco Santoro/ 32 via Porta Pinciana, Roma'. Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd (Stand 310). © TEFAF 2018

Lot 3101. A wucai garlic mouth 'Fish and aquatic plant' vase, Ming dynasty, Wanli period (1573-1620); 40.3 cm., 15 7/8  in. Estimate 400,000 - 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 500,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's 2013.

of compressed globular form supported on a slightly flared foot, sweeping up to a tall waisted neck and garlic mouth, freely decorated in underglazed-blue, iron-red, yellow and green enamels with a variety of fish and crustaceans swimming among aquatic plants above a bed of low weeds emerging from the water, between a 'classic' scroll around the foot and a foliate scroll encircling the shoulder, the neck decorated with two blossoming prunus branches covered with maroon and green bark, the bulging mouth picked out with pendent petal lappets in alternating iron-red and yellow enamels, the rim decorated with a band of key-fret interrupted by a cartouche inscribed in underglaze blue with an apocryphal six-character Xuande mark.

Andrew Grima, Necklace, London, 1974. Citrine and diamond set in 18ct yellow gold. Length 41.5 cm (16.3 in.). Signed 'Grima', maker's mark 'AGLtd' and with London assay marks for 1974. Hancocks (Stand 243). © TEFAF 2018

Illustrated in 'Grima - A Career of Fifty Years', no. 29. This necklace took 248 hours to make.

Exhibited: London: Goldsmiths' Hall, 'Grima Retrospective', May 1991, cat. no. 58.

Amy Burton (London, 1981). The 'Cassiopeia' diamond ring, from the Unum collection by Amy Burton, London, 2017. Diamond, central diamond 4.07ct E vs2 and platinum. Central diamond 10.7 x 8.8 x 5.72 mm (0.7 x 0.3 x 0.2 in.). London Assay and Makers marks. Hancocks (Stand 243). © TEFAF 2018

Flowers in a lacquer basket and in a glass vase, circa 1610-20. Oil on panel, 53.3 x 74.9 cm (21 x 29.5 in.). Richard Green (Stand 302). © TEFAF 2018

Provenance: Gallery M. Schultess, Basel; Collection W. Hofmann-Hess, Basel; Sale Hôtel Drouot (Poulain), Paris, 1 December 1982, no. 49; Gallery John Mitchell, London, 1983; Collection Robert H. Smith, Washington, DC; Gallery Richard Green, London, 1987; Private collection, USA.

Jan van Goyen (Leiden, 1596 - The Hague, 1656), River landscape with a castle with a round tower, 1642. Oil on panel, 56.5 x 79.8 cm (22.3 x 31.4 in.). Signed with monogram and dated lower left 'VG 1642' (VG in ligature). Richard Green (Stand 302). © TEFAF 2018

Provenance: Jules Porgès (1839-1921), Paris; Sir Felix Cassel (1869-1953), London; Wildenstein, London, circa 1946; Eugene Slatter, London, by 1948; From whom probably acquired by Albert Ehrman (1890-1960), London.

Exhibited: London, Eugene Slatter Gallery, 'Dutch and Flemish Masters', 5th May-10th July 1948, no. 6.

Albert Marquet (Bordeaux, 1875 - Paris, 1947), La Frette en été, 1939. Oil on canvas, 65.4 x 81.3 cm (25.8 x 32 in.). Signed lower right 'marquet'. Richard Green (Stand 302). © TEFAF 2018

To be included in the forthcoming catalogue critique of the work of Albert Marquet being prepared by Jean-Claude Martinet and Guy Wildenstein under the sponsorship of the Fondation Wildenstein.

Provenance: René Dreyfus, Paris; Private collection, France; Marcela Botnar, Paris; From which acquired by descent to a private collector

The Bateman Master, Venice: The Piazzetta, looking North; and The entrance to the Grand Canal, looking East, with the Church of Santa Maria Della Salute, Venice, circa 1739. Oil on canvas, 148.5 x 225 cm (58.5 x 88.6 in.). Charles Beddington Ltd (Stand 373)© TEFAF 2018.

NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s will present four stone sculptures from the esteemed Asian private collection, Jingyatang. Exemplary works of art from the Northern Wei through to the Sui Dynasties beautifully illustrate the diverse aesthetics of Buddhist sculpture in China. Jingyatang: Treasures of Buddhist Sculpture will be on view in Sotheby's New York headquarters from 15 March, alongside over 1,300 other works of art, before it is offered at auction on 20 March at 10:30am. 

Angela McAteer, Head of the Chinese Works of Art Department in New York, commented: “American institutions, including many of them here in New York, have a long-standing tradition of building phenomenal Asian art collections around the finest Buddhist sculpture. We are thrilled to introduce four such gems from China this Asia Week New York. Of the highest quality and rarity, these works of art represent the peak of Buddhist sculpture and are, truly, of museum quality.” 

An Exceptional and Rare Limestone Relief Carving of an Apsara from the Northern Wei Dynasty, 386 to 534 A.D., is the oldest of the four offerings. Handsomely carved and in wonderful condition, the apsara – an angelic, female creature who appears often for visual context alongside Buddhas and Bodhisattvas – takes center stage, embodying the imagery’s transformation from a South East Asian import to a uniquely Chinese vision. No longer in flight, the grounded figure in a kneeling posture, with a double-halo above her head, radiates serenity, humility and spirituality. Last offered at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in April 1997 from the collection of renowned dealer J.T. Tai, this unique work carries a pre-sale estimate of $1.2/1.5 million. 

Lot 201. An Exceptional and Rare Limestone Relief Carving of an Apsara, Northern Wei Dynasty (386 to 534 A.D.); Height 23 1/8  in., 58.7 cm. Estimate 1,200,000 — 1,500,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's 2018

of vertical rectangular form with a slight crescent curvature at the sides, the gray stone carved in multiple levels of relief with a kneeling apsara shown in three-quarter view and attired in flowing robes, draped in loose overlapping sashes and adorned with a wide, cusped pectoral, the spirit's proper right knee bent to the ground with the thigh resting upon the calf, the left knee raised in a lunge, the torso turned frontally with the arms brought forward and palms pressed in prayer before the chest, the subtly bowed head with a beatific smile playing across the lips, the slender almond-shaped eyes beneath an evenly arched brow and framed by pendulous earlobes, below an elaborate high chignon secured behind a trilobed diadem, all framed by a petal-shaped double-mandorla emanating above the shoulders, budding lotus stems issuing alongside the mandorla, the lower edge and sides carved with a raised border, fitted stand (2)

Provenance: Collection of Tai Jun Tse (J.T. Tai, 1910-1992).
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 29th April 1997, lot 713.

Exhibited: Fo diao zhi mei. Bei chao fojiao shidiao yishu/The Splendour of Buddhist Statuaries. Buddhist Stone Carvings in the Northern Dynasties, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1997, cat. no. 005.
Qian gu fo yan. Chuantong diaoke tezhan / Ancient Chinese Sculpture II [Thousand ancient Buddhist countenances. Special exhibition of classical sculpture], Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, 2000, cat. no. 13. 

Literature: Bore baoxiang Jingyatang cang Zhongguo foxiang yishu/The Treasures of Chinese Buddhist Sculptures, Taipei, 2016, pp. 36-39, cat. no. 5.

Dignity and Grace: A Rare Northern Wei Apsara Relief
Regina Krahl 

This dignified image of a kneeling celestial being from the Jingyatang collection is moving in its serene expression and unconventional in its iconography. Its three-quarter profile rendering is characteristic of the stylistic language of Northern Wei (386-534) stone carvers, but it is difficult to find a comparable image of such sculptural quality, or any relief of this period that so successfully indicates three-dimensionality. In spite of close stylistic similarities with rock reliefs from China’s main cave temples, particularly those at Longmen and Gongxian, both in Henan province and both commissioned by the Northern Wei imperial family, it cannot be directly attributed to either of those caves. Both these gigantic imperial sculpture projects of course were determinant for the development of Buddhist sculpture and influenced rock carvings as well as free-standing steles of the period, and the present figure clearly stands in this tradition. 

Although the headdress and pose of the current figure suggest an apsara, its overall rendering deviates from the common depiction of apsaras known from this period. Apsaras (Chinese feitian, ‘flying in heaven’) tend to be angel-like female figures hovering in mid-air around the Buddha or Bodhisattvas. While they do not have a strong liturgical function in Buddhism, they play an important part in Buddhist imagery, where – depicted as graceful, enchanting ladies playing musical instruments or performing dancing motions – they generally serve as enhancement of the heavenly realm. Indian prototypes clearly served as models, such as the famous early depictions of apsaras from the wall paintings of the Ajanta caves in Aurangabad district, Maharashtra state, created in the 5th/6th centuries and earlier, whose celestial singers and dancers evoke sensual pleasures for divine beings.

Chinese representations generally conform to this image of apsaras as alluring, angelic creatures. The present stone carving, however, represents a gracious and divine, gender-neutral Buddhist image and thus offers a completely different facet of an apsara: its demure pose and pious gesture depict a serious, devout stance that is unusual in this context and may represent a more Sinicized version of these celestial beings. The composed, chaste manner in which this apsara is depicted reminds us of the humble donor figures often shown kneeling, in adoration of the Buddha, rather than the radiant celestial nymphs floating in mid-air. This rendering is further emphasized by the distinct double halo behind the head, which underlines the significance of the spiritual message. 

This rendering appears to be extremely rare and no closely related carving appears to be recorded. One similar figure can, however, be seen on the rear wall of the Central Binyang cave, one of the main caves at Longmen near Luoyang, Henan province, which was carved to the order of the Northern Wei Emperor Xuanwu (r. 500-515) and completed in 523. On the aureole surrounding the main Buddha, next to the figure of Ananda, we see an apsara, very similary attired and depicted in the same pose, but carved in a very different style, in more shallow relief; see Zhongguo meishu quanji: Diaosu bian[Complete series on Chinese art: Sculpture section], 11: Longmen shiku diaoke [Sculptures of the Longmen caves], Shanghai, 1988, pl. 40 (fig. 1).

A stone carving of an apsara, Northern Wei dynasty, Longmen Grottoes, Luoyang © Yang Chaojie, Researcher, Longmen Grottoes Academy, Luoyang, Henan Province

 The sensitive, softly rounded carving style, the three-quarter profile rendering and the subliminal smile of the elongated face, created by a deeply carved groove around the mouth, are much closer to the stone reliefs of the Gongxian caves, also in Henan province and equally commissioned by the Northern Wei imperial family, under Emperor Xiaoming (r. 516-528). Although no closely related image is known from Gongxian either, and the workmanship of the present image is more elaborate and detailed than that of related figures at Gongxian, with its scarves draped in two loops it is nevertheless reminiscent of some of the musicians depicted there; see, for example, Zhongguo meishu quanji: Diaosu bian [Complete series on Chinese art: Sculpture section], 13: Gongxian Tianlongshan Xiangtangshan Anyang shiku diaoke [Sculptures of the Gongxian, Tianlongshan, Xiangtangshan and Anyang caves], Beijing, 1989, pl. 23; or Gongxian shiku si [Gongxian cave temples], Beijing, 1963, pls 61-63. Apsaras are, however, rather differently depicted at Gongxian, floating in mid-air; see ibid., pl. 345; Zhongguo shiku: Gongxian shiku si [Chinese cave temples. The cave temples of Gongxian], Beijing, 1989, pls 206-207; and Zhongguo meishu quanji, op.cit., vol. 13, pl. 74.

Compare also a similar head, published in An Exhibition of Chinese Stone Sculptures, C.T. Loo & Co., New York, 1940, cat. no. 15, subsequently sold in these rooms, 17th September 2003, lot 16, and attributed to Gongxian, illustrated in Gongxian shiku [Cave temples of Gongxian], Beijing, 2005, p. 193, fig. 13; and another Northern Wei head fragment, attributed to the Binyang cave at Longmen, published in Yamaguchi korekushion Chūgoku sekibutsu ten [Exhibition of Chinese stone Buddhas from the Yamaguchi collection], Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, Osaka, 1979, cat. no. 71.

Gongxian figures also show similar curls on either side of the shoulders, but generally only two on each side, see Gongxian shiku, op.cit., pp. 194-7, figs 14, 17-22 and passim. The plump lotus buds, symbols of purity in Buddhism, which adorn the image, filling empty space around the halo, are unusual to find in this context. Lotus flowers are sometimes held by Bodhisattvas and can be seen, for example, in the Binglingsi caves in Yongjing county, Gansu province, but are untypical of Longmen or Gongxian; see Zhongguo Shiku. Yongjing Bingling si [Chinese cave temples. The cave temples of Bingling in Yongjing], Beijing, 1989, passim.

An Inscribed and Dated Huanghuashi Buddhist Stele from the Eastern Wei Dynasty, dated Xinghe Third Year and corresponding to 541 A.D., is also estimated at $1.2/1.5 million. This sculpture, sold by Yamanaka & Co in Osaka in 1924 and closely related to a huanghuashi stele showcased at the Yurinkan Museum in Kyoto, is notable for its complex composition; the central Buddha, with two smaller Buddhas on his halo, is surrounded by a crowd of bodhisattvas, lions, monks and worshipping figures. The stele’s form is also significant. Initially used for funerary and commemorative purposes, by the 5th century, as the number of Buddhist practitioners rapidly grew, these works of art were used as markers of communal identity, as displayed by this particular example. 

Lot 202. An Inscribed and Dated Huanghuashi Buddhist Stele from the Eastern Wei Dynasty, dated Xinghe Third Year and corresponding to 541 A.D.; Height 17 in., 43.2 cm. Estimate 1,200,000 — 1,500,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's 2018.

the flame-shaped mandorla richly carved in high relief, centered with Shakyamuni Buddha seated in vajraparyankasana on a rectangular platform with loose robes draping the body and falling in rhythmic folds over the platform, the right hand raised in abhaya mudra and left hand in varada mudra, the face with a meditative expression beneath the domed ushnisha, a lotus-form nimbus radiating behind the head, the Buddha flanked by bodhisattvas standing above seated lions, monks and worshipping figures, with five apsaras in flight, each playing a musical instrument and trailing fluttering sashes, all raised on a tiered rectangular base supported on four legs, the upper register of the base carved in high relief with a central squatting figure holding a boshan-form censer overhead and flanked by kneeling monks, the front of the lower register and legs carved with a twenty-character inscription reading 'Zhang Huiqi makes a statue for his mother Sun Sheng, fourth day of the twelfth month in the third year of Xinghe', corresponding to 541, wood stand with descriptive inscribed metal plate (3).

Provenance: Yamanaka & Co., Osaka, 1924.

Exhibited: Shina ko bijutsu taikan/Catalogue of a Collection of Chinese Art, Yamanaka & Co., Osaka, 1924, cat. no. 120.
Fo diao zhi mei. Bei chao fojiao shidiao yishu/The Splendour of Buddhist Statuaries. Buddhist Stone Carvings in the Northern Dynasties, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1997, cat. no. 017. 
Zhonguo gu fo diao tezhan [Special exhibition of Chinese ancient Buddhist sculptures], Hualien County Cultural Center, Hualien, 1999, cat. no. 011.
Qian gu fo yan. Chuantong diaoke tezhan / Ancient Chinese Buddhist Sculpture II [Thousand ancient Buddhist countenances. Special exhibition of classical sculpture], Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, 2000, cat. no. 18. 

Illustration of the present lot in Shina ko bijutsu taikan/Catalogue of a Collection of Chinese Art, Yamanaka & Co., Osaka, 1924, cat. no. 120.

Literature: Bore baoxiang Jingyatang cang Zhongguo foxiang yishu /The Treasures of Chinese Buddhist Sculptures, Taipei, 2016, pp. 40-43, cat. no. 6.

Note: Richly carved with a vibrant scene of veneration, the present carving represents the phenomenon of the emergence of stone steles as an important Buddhist sculptural medium within Chinese history. It stems from the dynamic growth of Buddhism in the 5th century, which saw the formation of Buddhist devotional societies throughout China. These groups sparked a burst of creativity in the production of religious art as devotees fervently commissioned steles to be made, as such acts of personal devotion or accumulation of merits were linked to their future life. Subsequently, a variety of regional styles flourished in the 6th century, distinct from that of famous monumental cave temple carvings.

Since the 3rd century BC, the use of steles as symbolic monuments has endured throughout Chinese history. Initially utilized for commemorative purposes, these monuments extolled the political and philosophical values of the reigning party and were erected in public spaces as emblems of a community’s identity and to foster societal unity. According to Dorothy C. Wong in Chinese Steles. Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form, Honolulu, 2004, p. 43, the origins of Buddhist steles can be traced to two events that occurred during the last two decades of the fifth century: the emergence of Buddhist devotional societies and the first espousal of tablets for Buddhist use. These events are documented at the Buddhist cave temple sites, Yungang and Longmen (386-534).  

Buddhist devotional groups played an important role in the development of regional religious art. During the Northern Wei dynasty, state-sponsorship of Buddhism enabled the rapid spread of the religion throughout Northern China. Lay Buddhists organised themselves into voluntary groups and associated with local temples. These groups were among the first to adopt stone tablets to record their faith, erecting ‘Buddhist steles that served as monuments commemorating the collective groups’ religious, social, and territorial, identity’ (ibid.). By the 6th century, these groups became the chief patrons of steles, with a smaller number sponsored by individual donors and families, such as the present piece. The popularity of steles is attributable to the easy accessibility of the medium and its relatively small size. These two factors gave rise to a multitude of regional workshops, many of which developed their own style using the monumental cave temple carvings as a basis.  

The present carving belongs to a select group of sculptures which are carved from a distinct yellow-flecked limestone, which includes a related stele, dated to 538, in the Yurinkan Museum, Kyoto, published in Yurinkan Seika, Kyoto, 1975, pl. 19 (fig. 1). Shared characteristics between these two steles include a similarity in composition and the use of high-relief carving to create an animated scene, particularly in the modeling of the apsaras flying above the central figure. The sweet expressions of the figures as well as the fullness of their bodies and style of drapery are also strikingly similar, which suggests they may have been created by the same hand.

An inscribed huanghuashi Buddhist stele, Eastern Wei dynasty, dated Yuanxiang first year (538), Yurinkan Museum, Kyoto. After: Yurinkan Seika [The Brilliance of the Yurin Collection], Kyoto, 1975, pl. 19.

This stele is iconographically complex: the central Buddha, in this period probably Shakyamuni, has two small Buddhas sitting on top of his lotus-shaped halo, possibly as reference to the Buddhist trinity. He holds his right hand up in abhaya mudra, which signifies reassurance, while the left hand is held in varada mudra, symbolising compassion and charity. Together the hand gestures convey to worshippers that they may approach and receive the blessing of the Buddha. He is attended by bodhisattvas, lions, monks and worshipping figures. Below, two monks kneel to either side of a squatting demonic figure supporting a boshan-form censer. A celestial quality is captured through the five apsaras playing instruments that frame the entire scene as they hover above. One of the Eight Supernatural beings (babuzhong) in the Buddhist pantheon, according to the Lotus Sutra, apsaras are the protectors of the Buddha and of doctrine. Appearing on Chinese Buddhist images as early as 420 in the cave temple of Binglingsi, Yongjing county, these deities grew in popularity in the late Northern Wei and Eastern Wei periods (see the catalogue to the exhibition Return of the Buddha: The Qingzhou Discoveries, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2002, p. 84). 

As seen on this stele, the development of Buddhist sculpture of the Eastern Wei can be described as a slight modification of iconography and style from previous periods. The figures are fuller in form, which reveals the growing interest in form over line, and a masterful ability to incorporate the play of light in the overall composition through high-relief modeling. This effect is most noticeable on the apsaras, the curves of their bodies and flowing scarves creating a wonderful rhythmic quality which creates a lively interplay of light and shade that gives it a flickering quality. A limestone fragment of similarly carved apsara, in the Jingyatang collection, is published in Bore baoxiang Jingyatang cang Zhongguo fojia yishu /The Treasures of Chinese Buddhist Sculptures, Taipei, 2016, pl. 7.

Due to the regional nature of stele production, carving styles of the brief Eastern Wei period vary noticeably; compare related dated examples, such as a larger limestone example with similar leaf-shaped mandorla, dated to 537, attributed to Hebei province, from the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust and now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, included in the exhibition The Footsteps of the Buddha. An Iconic Journey from India to China, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1988, cat. no. 93; and an alabaster stele of similar size, but carved with some openwork in the background, dated to 544, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in the exhibition Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from the Wei through the T’ang Dynasties, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1983, cat. no. 11. A similar stele depicting the Buddhist triad and apsaras, but missing the base, in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, is included in Liu Yang, ‘The Discovery of Mass: a footnote to the stylistic and iconographic innovation in Chinese Buddhist sculpture’, Orientations, September 2000, fig. 2.

Formerly in the collection of the Yurinkan Museum, the Carved Limestone Figure of Bodhisattva is an elegant and striking statue. Measuring 33 inches in height, this figure with fine facial features and stylized draped robes is a beautiful example of the mature artistic style of the Northern Qi dynasty. Published in Saburō Matsubara’s seminal Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from 1966, this work of art carries a pre-sale estimate of $600/800,000. 

Lot 203. A Carved Limestone Figure of Bodhisattva, Northern Qi dynasty (386-534); Height 37 1/2  in., 95.3 cm. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's 2018

the deity standing on an integral circular base and with a petal-shaped mandorla framing the head, the face finely carved with a tranquil expression and delicate features, with slender almond-shaped eyes beneath an evenly arched brow tapering at the end issuing from a straight nose above full lips, framed by long pendulous earlobes and center-parted hair tied in a high chignon secured by a lobed diadem centered by a rosette, the body draped in loose robes and tied sashes, the robes following the contours of the body and cascading in folds, falling open to reveal the diagonal under-tunic and further tied sashes suspended from the waist, the arms bent at the sides with the right hand upturned with the palm facing forward holding a budding lotus stem and the left hand pendent holding an amphora bottle, traces of polychrome pigment and gilt, wood stand (2).

Provenance: Collection of Fujii Zensuke (1873-1943).
Yurinkan Museum, Kyoto. 

Exhibited: Fo diao zhi mei. Bei chao fojiao shidiao yishu/The Splendour of Buddhist Statuaries. Buddhist Stone Carvings in the Northern Dynasties, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1997, cat. no. 032.

Literature: Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku Bukkyō hokiza shi kenkyū/Chinese Buddhist Sculpture. A study based on bronze and stone statues other than works from cave temples, Tokyo, 1966, pl. 165c.
Bore baoxiang Jingyatang cang Zhongguo foxiang yishu/The Treasures of Chinese Buddhist Sculptures, Taipei, 2016, pp. 76-79, cat. no. 15.

Illustration of the present lot in Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku Bukkyō hokiza shi kenkyū/Chinese Buddhist Sculpture. A study based on bronze and stone statues other than works from cave temples, Tokyo, 1966, pl. 165c.

Note: The Northern Qi dynasty (550-577) was one of the most vibrant periods in the history of Chinese art, both religious and secular, as its openness towards foreigners, their ideas, beliefs and goods, immensely enriched the local cultural climate. Buddhist sculpture experienced perhaps its most glorious moment in this period. While in the Northern Wei period (386-534), manners of depiction had only just been adapted from their south and central Asian prototypes, in the Northern Qi they had matured and developed into native styles. Yet, they still emanate the seriousness of strong religious beliefs and had not yet moved towards the pleasant and more decorative imagery of the Tang dynasty (618-907). The present sculpture is one of the classic bodhisattva images of the period, when sculptors were less interested in rendering the three-dimensional physical side of a deity figure than in capturing its spiritual message through delicate facial features and gestures. 

Bodhisattva figures of related type became popular through the patronage of the Northern Wei imperial family, who commissioned the carving of rock caves in Longmen and Gongxian, both in Henan province, in the first quarter of the 6thcentury, which typically show seated or standing Buddhas flanked by two bodhisattvas. Besides these massive stone carvings in cave temples, many free-standing steles, also often with two such bodhisattva figures on either side of a central Buddha statue, were commissioned in that century, which followed the artistic language introduced by these grand Buddhist cave sculpture projects, which exerted an overwhelming influence on Chinese sculpture of the period in general.  

This majestic figure of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara from the Jingyatang collection stands out because of its fine, even facial features and the attention paid to its elegant, decoratively stylized crown and garment with loose scarves and knotted ribbons. The low-relief carving style and almost complete disregard for the shape of the body under the garments is characteristic of the Northern Qi period. Although many features were introduced to Buddhist stone carving in the preceding Northern and Eastern Wei (534-550) periods, stylistic variants would naturally have been introduced by locally working sculptors.  

Although the present figure fits neatly into the sculptural tradition of the mid-6th century, close comparisons are hard to find. The depiction of the long scarves hanging down in two loose overlapping loops in front of the figure’s knees is particularly unusual. Although bodhisattvas of this period tend to be similarly dressed, the two scarves are mostly crossed near the waist and inserted through a ring-shaped disc.  

Matsubara, who published this bodhisattva figure in his ground-breaking study of Buddhist sculpture in 1966, compares the style to that of a stele with a seated Avalokitesvara figure of the Northern Qi period from Jincheng in Shanxi province, about a hundred miles north of Longmen and Gongxian, see Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku Bukkyō hokiza shi kenkyū/Chinese Buddhist Sculpture: A Study Based on Bronze and Stone Statues Other Than Works from Cave Temples, Tokyo, 1966, p. 272, fig. 245. 

In its overall shallow relief treatment of the body, with only the hands protruding in higher relief, this figure shows similarities to many bodhisattvas that flank Buddhas at Gongxian, which are depicted with similarly parted hair, rudimentarily indicated under similar crowns decorated with lotus petals and circular jewel-like discs, with a similar mandorla behind the head, and dressed in similar garments, although they differ considerably in detail. Compare, for example, a Northern Wei Bodhisattva figure from the north wall of cave 1 of the Gongxian cave complex, whose garment is draped around the lower legs in more complex folds and whose scarves are crossed through a disc, illustrated in Gongxian shikusi [Cave temples of Gongxian], Beijing, 1963, pl. 69; in Zhongguo shiku. Gongxian shikusi [Chinese caves. Gongxian cave temples], Beijing, 1989, pl. 69 (fig. 1), and p. 209, figs 13-1 to 13-5, where it is compared with related figures from other walls in cave 1 and from other caves; and in Gongxian shiku [Cave temples of Gongxian], Beijing, 2005, p. 24, fig. 36, and p. 33, fig. 55.  

Related bodhisattva figures, with similar crowns and garments, but also with more stylized garment folds, can also be seen at the Longmen caves, for example, on the north wall of the Putai cave, which dates from the Northern Wei period, see Longmen shiku [Longmen caves], Beijing, 1980, pl. 105.  

The sharply delineated features of the face with its narrow, almond-shaped eyes are reminiscent of the large seated Eastern Wei bodhisattva figure in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated in Osvald Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, London, 1925 (reprint Bangkok, 1998), pl. 112 and in Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku Bukkyō chōkoku shiron [Historical survey of Chinese Buddhist sculpture], Tokyo, 1995, vol. 1, pl. 243; other Eastern Wei steles showing bodhisattvas with related treatment of the garments and crown are published ibid., pls 242, 281b, 282b, 284; and a related free-standing Avalokitesvara figure of the Eastern Wei period, but with more stylized garment folds, in the Tokyo National Museum, is illustrated in Matsubara, op.cit., 1966, pl. 111b.

A Carved Limestone Head of Avalokitesvara from the Sui Dynasty will be the last lot offered in this dedicated sale (estimate $400/600,000). Befitting the bodhisattva of compassion, whose popularity soared in the 6th century as the Sui emperors expanded their empire along China’s western and northern borders, the figure’s face embodies serenity and calm. Purchased from famed Japanese dealers Yamanaka & Co., the sculpture first appeared in Taiwan’s Artist Magazine in December 1998, a year following its exhibition debut at the National Palace Museum in Taipei in 1997; subsequent exhibitions include those at the Hualina County Cultural Center in 1999, the Gaoxiong Municipal Art Museum in 2000 and the Seoul National University Museum of Art in 2007.

Lot 204. A Carved Limestone Head of Avalokitesvara, Sui Dynasty (581-618); Height 16 1/4  in., 41.3 cm. Estimate 400,000 — 600,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's 2018.

the full oval face carved with a serene expression, the downcast eyes set beneath finely arched eyebrows leading to the straight nose above full lips, the rounded cheeks framed by pendulous earlobes and surmounted by an elaborate diadem concealing a simple chignon, secured with a fabric band laying in folds above the forehead and knotted behind each ear, the three-lobed diadem carved in high relief, each lobe with a shaped border of scrolling curls, centered with the Buddha Amitabha standing on a lotus pedestal and backed by a tall mandorla between an openwork rosette suspending three tassels followed by a further lobe centered with an arch lined with circles, traces of red, green, and blue pigment throughout, tall wood stand (2)

Provenance: Yamanaka & Co.
Collection of Tsai Chen-Nan. 

Exhibited: Diaoshu biecang/The Art of Contemplation. Religious Sculpture from Private Collections, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1997, p. 165, cat. no. 2.
Zhonguo gu fo diao tezhan [Special exhibition o f Chinese ancient Buddhist sculptures], Hualien County Cultural Center, Hualien, 1999, cat. no. 031.
Qian gu fo yan. Chuantong diaoke tezhan/Ancient Chinese Sculptures II [Thousand ancient Buddhist countenances. Special exhibition of classical sculpture], Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, 2000, cat. no. 28. 
The Beauty of Buddhist Sculptures, National Museum of History, Taipei, 2006, cat. no. 27. 
Buddha: The Embodiment of Wisdom and Compassion, Seoul National University Museum, Seoul, 2007, cat. no. 20. 

Literature: Yishujia yuekan (Artist Magazine), Taipei, December 1998, p. 254.
Bore baoxiang Jingyatang cang Zhongguo foxiang yishu/The Treasures of Chinese Buddhist Sculptures, Taipei, 2016, cat. no. 21.

Note: The Sui Dynasty emperors used Buddhist faith and major building projects, including the construction of pagodas, temples, and religious statuary, as means of unifying an empire that had been fragmented for over three centuries. At the same time, they led expansionist campaigns along China’s western and northeastern borders. These actions significantly impacted Chinese Buddhist practice in several ways which are reflected in religious art of the period. For instance, the political and social turmoil that accompanied dynastic changes in the 6th century led to the rise of a variant form of Pure Land Buddhism, in which devotion to Amitabha (or a bodhisattva, such as Avalokiteshvara) allowed adherents to be reborn in Sukhavati, the Western Paradise of the Buddha Amitabha. Consequently, images of bodhisattvas proliferated in the Sui dynasty, as evidenced by the present and numerous contemporaneous examples. The Sui emperors’ religio-political agenda also led to increased communication across eastern Eurasia, which contributed to the transmission of Buddhist concepts and artistic styles from South and Central Asia into China and from China to Korea and Japan. This had the concurrent effects of diversifying the visual vocabulary of each region of the empire, while preserving established characteristics in production.

The present sculpture is sumptuously carved with the attributes of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, known in China as Guanyin. The head is characterized by fleshy features that harmonize the Sui dynasty’s emergent trend toward naturalism with the inherited idealized forms that conventionally conveyed the purity of Buddhist subjects. Here, Avalokiteshvara’s broad arched brows and the sweep of the lowered lids lead the eye down the straight nose to the plump lips and slightly upturned chin, before following the softened jawline to the plump cheeks and returning upward to the crown of the head. The full oval face is counterbalanced above by a tall diadem richly carved with an image of the Buddha, floral features, wave-like borders, and streaming tassels in a combination of high relief and openwork detail. Even in its opulence, the diadem follows the standard Sui formula of a three-sided structure with aesthetic attention given to its band. These traits suggest that the head belongs to a mature phase of Sui artistic production, when craftsmen synthesized styles from within and beyond China into graceful yet dynamic compositions that expressed the transcendental majesty of the Buddhist subject.

Excavations at Qingzhou (Shandong) have yielded Northern Qi and Sui limestone standing bodhisattvas, detailed with polychrome pigments and gilding, that similarly bear full, oval faces crowned by intricate diadems with petaled lobes, pendent tassels, and articulated bands, suggesting a geographic and cultural origin for this style of carving; for a Sui dynasty figure of Guanyin from Longxing si, Qingzhou see Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, fig. 13; for a related Northern Qi bodhisattva, see Buddhist Sculpture: New Discoveries from Qingzhou, Shandong Province, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 2001, cat. no. 69. Similar traits, particularly with respect to the openwork tri-lobed diadem and elaborate diadem sash, are also seen on a Northern Qi precedent, probably from Western Shanxi or Shaanxi province, dating to around 575, included in the exhibition Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from the Wei through the T’ang Dynasties, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1983, cat. no. 18. In the subsequent Sui dynasty, these decorative elements developed more fluid lines and the bodhisattva’s face relaxed into a gentler expression, as seen in the carved figure of Guanyin in the Detroit Institute of Arts (acc. no. 26.128) dated by inscription to 581, and attributed to Shaanxi or Henan province by Osvald Sirén in Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vols 1 and 4, New York, 1925, pl. 305. Related sculptures in the Cleveland Museum of Art (acc. no. 1962.162), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 42.152.5a, b), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University (acc. no. 1943.53.43) represent the next phase in the Sui Buddhist sculpture wherein the bodhisattva’s features soften, reflecting a more naturalistic quality, and the rhythmic carving of the elaborate diadem serves to exalt the deity as a spiritual exemplar. These are precisely the qualities seen in the present example, suggesting that the sculpture was carved around or following the turn of the 7th century. This approach to figuration continued through the end of the Sui dynasty, as evidenced by a bronze standing bodhisattva with a nearly identical diadem and face shape, published in Saburo Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture: A Study Based on Bronze and Stone Statues other than from Cave Temples, Tokyo, 1966, pl. 233.

Stone sculptures of the Sui dynasty are rare. A closely related carved limestone head dated to the Sui dynasty and attributed to Shanxi province, formerly with C. T. Loo, was exhibited in Buddhist Sculpture from Ancient China, J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 2017, cat. no. 10. A polychrome-painted limestone head of a bodhisattva, with a similar face shape but more elaborate coiffure and simplified hair ornaments, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th April 2016, lot 2871.

Lot 1. Pot, Vietnam, Culture de Đông Sơn, ca 500?-100 BCE. Terre cuite. H. H. 22 cm. Estimation : 150 - 250 €. Photo Cornette de Saint Cyr 2018

En terre cuite à décor d’impression et de bandes à hachures obliques. 

Arts d'Asie - Art Tribal - Documentation chez Cornette de Saint Cyr Paris, 75008 Paris, le 06 Mars 2018 à 14h30. Expert : Cabinet Daffos-Estournel. Tel. : +33 6 09 22 55 13. Consultant pour le Vietnam : Monsieur Philippe Truong. Tel. : +33 6 31 34 40 59 

Lot 3. Pot, Vietnam, période Hán Việt,  111 BCE – 603 CE. Grès blanchâtre à couverte transparente. H. 18 cm. Estimation : 150 - 250 €. Photo Cornette de Saint Cyr 2018

Arts d'Asie - Art Tribal - Documentation chez Cornette de Saint Cyr Paris, 75008 Paris, le 06 Mars 2018 à 14h30. Expert : Cabinet Daffos-Estournel. Tel. : +33 6 09 22 55 13. Consultant pour le Vietnam : Monsieur Philippe Truong. Tel. : +33 6 31 34 40 59 

Lot 2. Jarre, Vietnam, Dynastie des Lý (12°–13° siècle ). Grès à couverte verdâtre. H. 18,5 cm. Estimation: 150 € / 250 €. Photo Cornette de Saint-Cyr 2018

Arts d'Asie - Art Tribal - Documentation chez Cornette de Saint Cyr Paris, 75008 Paris, le 06 Mars 2018 à 14h30. Expert : Cabinet Daffos-Estournel. Tel. : +33 6 09 22 55 13. Consultant pour le Vietnam : Monsieur Philippe Truong. Tel. : +33 6 31 34 40 59 

Lot 6. Trois pots, Vietnam, Dynasties des Lý-Trần, 13°-14° siècle. Grès à couverte verdâtre. H. 5,5, 7 et 8 cm. Estimation: 100 € / 200 €. Photo Cornette de Saint-Cyr 2018

Arts d'Asie - Art Tribal - Documentation chez Cornette de Saint Cyr Paris, 75008 Paris, le 06 Mars 2018 à 14h30. Expert : Cabinet Daffos-Estournel. Tel. : +33 6 09 22 55 13. Consultant pour le Vietnam : Monsieur Philippe Truong. Tel. : +33 6 31 34 40 59 

Lot 17. Quatre assiettes , Vietnam, dynastie des Trần, 13°-14°siècle. En grès blanchâtre à couverte blanche et céladon dont une à bord lobé. Traces de pernette. D. 15 à 15,5 cm. Estimation : 150 € / 300 €. Photo Cornette de Saint-Cyr 2018

Lot 5. Deux bols, Vietnam, dynasties des Trần (13°-14°siècle) et Lê (15°-16°siècle). En grès blanchâtre à couverte blanche dont une à bord lobé. D. 12,5 et 17 cm. Estimation : 150 € / 300 €. Photo Cornette de Saint-Cyr 2018

Lot 12. Quatre assiettes, Vietnam, dynasties des Trần (13°-14°siècle) et Lê (15°-16°siècle). En grès blanchâtre à couverte céladon dont une à bord lobé. D. 13,5 à 15,5 cm. Estimation : 150 € / 300 €. Photo Cornette de Saint-Cyr 2018