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Lot Essay
This large and finely cast gilt-bronze figure may represent one of the Four Guardian Kings, sworn to protect Buddhism eternally. These figures were traditionally placed at the cardinal points of the compass in Buddhist temples to protect Buddhist deities.
A standing Guardian King of similar large size (28 in. high) is in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum, accession no. 33.820, was included in the Seattle Asian Art Museum exhibition Discovering Buddhist Art- Seeking the Sublime, 9 July 2003- 3 June 2005. The Seattle figure has a similar serene expression, wears similar chain-mail armor and has similar celestial scarved and billowing ribbons. A slightly smaller (21 in. high) gilt-bronze standing figure, identified as Weituo and dated to the Ming dynasty, 16th-17th century, was sold at Christie’s New York, 24 March 2011, lot 1632.
Another related gilt-bronze guardian figure of smaller size (12 1/2 in. high), and shown seated, formerly in the Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection, and in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is illustrated by Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan in Wisdom Embodied: Chinese and Daoist Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, p. 184, no. A63, where it is dated to the 17th century. See also a similar figure sold at Sotheby’s Paris, 11 June 2019, lot 29 (one of two), a similar but smaller (12.5 in.) figure sold at Christie’s New York, 23-24 March 2023, lot 1130, and a slightly larger (31 in.) figure from the Alan and Simone Hartman collection which sold at Bonhams New York, 14 December 2023, lot 12.
A standing Guardian King of similar large size (28 in. high) is in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum, accession no. 33.820, was included in the Seattle Asian Art Museum exhibition Discovering Buddhist Art- Seeking the Sublime, 9 July 2003- 3 June 2005. The Seattle figure has a similar serene expression, wears similar chain-mail armor and has similar celestial scarved and billowing ribbons. A slightly smaller (21 in. high) gilt-bronze standing figure, identified as Weituo and dated to the Ming dynasty, 16th-17th century, was sold at Christie’s New York, 24 March 2011, lot 1632.
Another related gilt-bronze guardian figure of smaller size (12 1/2 in. high), and shown seated, formerly in the Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection, and in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is illustrated by Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan in Wisdom Embodied: Chinese and Daoist Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, p. 184, no. A63, where it is dated to the 17th century. See also a similar figure sold at Sotheby’s Paris, 11 June 2019, lot 29 (one of two), a similar but smaller (12.5 in.) figure sold at Christie’s New York, 23-24 March 2023, lot 1130, and a slightly larger (31 in.) figure from the Alan and Simone Hartman collection which sold at Bonhams New York, 14 December 2023, lot 12.