CHINE, DYNASTIE YUAN, XIIIEME - XIVEME SIECLE

This small and rare wooden gem is a fine example of the so-called Nepalo-Chinese Buddhist style that appeared during the later Yuan dynasty. Although their Mongol founders ruled barely eighty years over China, their impact on culture and art was tremendous. They were devoted supporters of Tibetan Buddhism and to follow the correct representations of the deities they attracted foreign craftsmen to their court. Through the mediation of the king of Nepal, eighty Newari craftsmen were sent to the Mongol court around 1260 AD. These artists brought with them Newari ideas of beauty and style. This resulted in less concentration on the idealized body beauty, clothing and adornments from previous Chinese periods (see for instance the important wooden Song Guanyin, Lot 27). In due course the pure Newari style became assimilated into a Nepalo-Chinese style of the later Yuan and early Ming period. The images show the correct Tibetan Buddhist iconography, slim bodies though with more detailed clothing as can be gleaned from the presented Maitreya figure. A pure Chinese influence is the placing of the lotus pericarp on a pedestal sculpted in relief with scrolling tendrils and well-known from slightly later Ming bronze examples.