Lot 3647. A Dehuafigure of Guanyin, signed He Chaozong, late Ming dynasty. Estimation 1,000,000 — 1,500,000 HKD. Unsold. Photo Sotheby's.
skillfully modelled as Guanyin, seated on a rajalilasana on a base with a striated border, the poised figure depicted clad in a loose robe opening at the chest and cascading in voluminous folds around the base with the right foot partially exposed, the figure elegantly rendered with a benevolent and peaceful expression flanked by long pendulous earlobes and surmounted by neatly drawn-up hair secured with a ruyi-shaped pin beneath a draped cowl, the reverse impressed with a He Chaozong yin seal mark within a square, covered overall save for the base with a translucent warm glaze of creamy-white tone; 30.2 cm, 11 7/8 in.
Provenance: Collection of Karl Frithiof Dahl (1869-1952).
Notes: Sensitively modelled with a serene smile and half-closed eyes, which capture the deity’s deep state of contemplation, this figure bears the mark of He Chaozhong. Although his dates were unknown until recently and he was believed to have been active during the Kangxi period, recent scholarship has indicated that He lived during the late 16th century through to the first half of the 17th century. His name is mentioned in the 1763 Quanzhou Fuzhi gazetteer, in a section entitled ‘Ming Specialists’ (yishu), as a noted sculptor of porcelain figures. Furthermore, two figures of Guanyin with He Chaozong marks also bear cyclical dates that indicate that he was active in the late Ming dynasty: the first, attributed to 1618, is illustrated in Robert H. Blumenfield, Blanc de Chine. The Great Porcelain of Dehua, Berkeley, 2002, p. 165, in the collection of the author; and the second, attributed to 1619, included in the exhibition Blanc-de-Chine. Divine Images in Porcelain, China Institute, New York, 2002, cat. no. 25, was sold in our New York rooms, 19th March 2007, lot 770.
A figure of Guanyin seated with one leg raised and the hands concealed by the heavy folds of the robe, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Classics of the Forbidden City. Guanyin in the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2014, pl. 176, together with one without a veil, pl. 177; another is illustrated in Robert H. Blumenfield, op. cit., p. 132; a third from the collection of C.A. Wiessing, was included in Blanc de Chine, S. Marchant & Son, London, 2006, pl. 3; and a fourth was sold at Christie’s Amsterdam, 9th June 1986, lot 154.
Other related figures of the bodhisattva Guanyin signed He Chaozong include one seated cross-legged on a similar pedestal, in the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, Tokyo, 1981, vol. 7, col. pl. 31; and another included in the exhibition Blanc-de Chine. Divine Images in Porcelain, op. cit., cat. no. 34.
Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 05 oct. 2016, 02:30 PM