가라지 세일 100불 불상 소더비 206만불 경매
LATE TANG DYNASTY / FIVE DYNASTIES
Height 6 1/4 in., 16.5 cm
PROVENANCE
Acquired from the estate of the above in Kirkwood, Missouri, 1999.
CATALOGUE NOTE
Cintamanicakra is often depicted in the same attitude as the present, holding in the six arms the wish-granting jewel (cintamani) in front of the chest, the dharma wheel (chakra) in a raised palm, the stem of a lotus in another hand, a mala in another, and the sixth planted down for support. The murals of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, in Cave 14, show a colorfully painted six-armed Cintamanicakra, in the same pose as the present example, and bearing the same attributes, executed in the late Tang period.
Another bronze example of this deity is illustrated in Saburo Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture: A study based on bronze and stone statues other than works from cave temples, Tokyo, 1966, pls 295a and b, attributed to the Tang dynasty. A related bronze figure in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art attributed to the 10th century, late Tang or Five Dynasties period, is illustrated in Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven, 2010, pl. A35 (fig. 1), depicts a different bodhisattva of the same type. The Metropolitan Museum figure has a lotus petal base of the same distinctive design as the present example, as well as other similar related stylistic elements, such as drapery, proportions, and facial modeling. Another gilt-bronze figure of an esoteric bodhisattva, in this case depicting Vajrasattva, from the collection of James W. and Marilynn Alsdorf, illustrated in Hugo Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Tokyo and Rutledge, 1967, pl. 81, now in The Art Institute of Chicago and attributed to the late 8th or early 9th century of the Tang period, also has a lotus base strikingly similar to that of the present Cintamanicakra figure. A further example of a gilt-bronze bodhisattva holding a cintamani, attributed to the 8th century and with a similar lotus base, modeling, and proportions, was exhibited in Tang Dynasty: Chinese Gold and Silver in American Collections, Dayton Art Institute, 1984, cat. no. 73.