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Lot Essay
It was not until the publication of H. Chapin's paper, 'Yunnanese Images of Avalokitesvara', Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 8 (1944-5), pp. 131-186, pls. 3-6, that a group of bronzes in Western collections was identified as being of Yunnanese origin, based on her study of a scroll painting known as the Long Scroll of Buddhist Images by the 12th century Yunnanese artist Zhang Shengwen.
In the late 1970's restoration work at the Qianxun Pagoda, Yunnan province, uncovered a reliquary deposit which included a gold standing Guanyin similar in style to those bronzes in the West and to the present seated figure. The gold figure with its silver mandorla is illustrated by A. Lutz, 'Buddhist Art in Yunnan', Orientations, February 1992, p. 49, fig. 6. The article goes on to identify the figure as 'Acouye Guanyin' (Ajaya Avalokitesvara: All Victorious Guanyin), who according to legend was an Indian monk who visited Yunnan in the seventh century as an incarnation of Guanyin.
According to W. Zwalf in the catalogue for the exhibition, Buddhism: Art and Faith, British Museum, 1985, p. 206, no. 297, these figures were made as talismans for the royal family.
Most of the extant figures of this manifestation of Avalokitesvara are shown standing, but everything else is quite similar, including the mudras in which the hands are held. The present figure and the very similar gilded figure sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 26 April 1998, lot 606, appear to be the only published examples where 'Acouye Guanyin' is shown seated. Both of these seated figures differ in one respect from the standing images, they do not wear a rosette-decorated belt or band at the waist above the dhoti.
Two of the standing figures from the Musée Guimet and the Freer Gallery of Art are illustrated by H. Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Vermont and Japan, 1967, pls. 58 and 59 respectively, and the author, along with H. Chapin, 'Yunnanese Images of Avalokitesvara', op. cit., discuss the Indian influences visible in these figures: the bare chest, slender body, tight-fitting skirt and conical hair treatment. Lutz, also, op. cit., p. 48, refers to these bronzes as the "only sculptural form in Yunnan whose origins can be traced back to Southeast Asia". Other standing figures are in various international Museum collections, including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the San Diego Museum, the Sumitomo Collection, Japan, the National Palace Museum, Taipei and in the Yunnan Provincial Museum, included in the exhibition, Gems of China's Cultural Relics, Beijing, 1990, no. 160. Another was sold in these rooms, 20 September 2002, lot 193.
In the late 1970's restoration work at the Qianxun Pagoda, Yunnan province, uncovered a reliquary deposit which included a gold standing Guanyin similar in style to those bronzes in the West and to the present seated figure. The gold figure with its silver mandorla is illustrated by A. Lutz, 'Buddhist Art in Yunnan', Orientations, February 1992, p. 49, fig. 6. The article goes on to identify the figure as 'Acouye Guanyin' (Ajaya Avalokitesvara: All Victorious Guanyin), who according to legend was an Indian monk who visited Yunnan in the seventh century as an incarnation of Guanyin.
According to W. Zwalf in the catalogue for the exhibition, Buddhism: Art and Faith, British Museum, 1985, p. 206, no. 297, these figures were made as talismans for the royal family.
Most of the extant figures of this manifestation of Avalokitesvara are shown standing, but everything else is quite similar, including the mudras in which the hands are held. The present figure and the very similar gilded figure sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 26 April 1998, lot 606, appear to be the only published examples where 'Acouye Guanyin' is shown seated. Both of these seated figures differ in one respect from the standing images, they do not wear a rosette-decorated belt or band at the waist above the dhoti.
Two of the standing figures from the Musée Guimet and the Freer Gallery of Art are illustrated by H. Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Vermont and Japan, 1967, pls. 58 and 59 respectively, and the author, along with H. Chapin, 'Yunnanese Images of Avalokitesvara', op. cit., discuss the Indian influences visible in these figures: the bare chest, slender body, tight-fitting skirt and conical hair treatment. Lutz, also, op. cit., p. 48, refers to these bronzes as the "only sculptural form in Yunnan whose origins can be traced back to Southeast Asia". Other standing figures are in various international Museum collections, including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the San Diego Museum, the Sumitomo Collection, Japan, the National Palace Museum, Taipei and in the Yunnan Provincial Museum, included in the exhibition, Gems of China's Cultural Relics, Beijing, 1990, no. 160. Another was sold in these rooms, 20 September 2002, lot 193.