14 Gilt Bronze Bodhisattva Yuan period, 1279 - 1368 Height: 28.0cm
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	Gilt bronze Bodhisattva seated in the position of royal ease, lalitásana, cast with the left leg pendant and foot resting on a spiky double-petalled lotus, and right knee up, with foot placed on a textured mat. The right arm rests on the right knee, while the slender fingers of the left hand are placed lightly on the trailing scarf; each wrist is encircled by a bracelet. His plump oval face is sweetly expressive with the small mouth set in a faint smile. The arched eyebrows which lead to the narrow bridge of the aquiline nose frame the downcast, heavy-lidded eyes. The neatly coiffed hair is secured above the forehead with a diadem and parts at the back into two tresses, each falling in three curling strands down the shoulder. The Bodhisattva wears an elaborate necklace descending in two double loops down the bare torso while bud-shaped tassels emerge from a central rosette. The underskirt is finely incised with a border of floral scrolls and falls in folds down the lower leg. A knee-length overskirt, edged with a narrow band of flower-heads, is pulled up high on the small of the back, and falls open at the front; another short garment is folded over the studded belt falling in folds between the legs. The shoulders are draped with a wide shawl which is threaded through the arms and curves to the feet where it terminates in flame-like points. The gilding has an attractive reddish-gold tone with extensive traces of red pigment. Provenance: John Sparks Ltd, London. Private collection, London. Similar examples: Sherman E. Lee and Wai-Kam Ho, ‘Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty (1279 - 1368)’, Cleveland, 1968, catalogue number 9, for the 14th century gilt bronze Guanyin in the British Museum. René-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé, ‘Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture in The Avery Brundage Collection’, Tokyo, 1974, plate 154 for a gilt bronze Guanyin dated to the 14th century. William Watson, ‘L’Art de la Chine’, Paris, 1997, page 415, number 472 for a smaller figure dated to the Song dynasty, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; also, Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt, ‘Chinese Art: Bronze, Jade, Sculpture, Ceramics’, London, 1960, page 280, number 126. These gilt bronze Bodhisattvas in this pose of ‘royal ease’ (presumably originally resting on a rockwork base in gilt bronze, or in another material) are generally referred to as the ‘Water and Moon’ (Shuiye) Guanyin, or the ‘Southern Seas’ (Nanhai) Guanyin, seated as if on the rocky shore of Mount Potalaka. It appears that the image of the Water and Moon Guanyin is mentioned in painting records dating to the 8th and 9th centuries1, and it is possible that such paintings, which no longer survive, served as prototypes for sculptors. The earliest extant painting examples appear to be 10th century banners from Dunhuang.2 According to Weidner, the use of the ‘moon in water’ metaphor for the transitory and unsubstantial nature of the world was common in Buddhist scriptures but there is ‘no scriptural basis for linking Guanyin with these metaphors’. These transformations appear to have been a result of artistic innovation, or, more likely, based on sources outside Buddhism, either from within or outside the Chinese tradition.3 1 Ed. Marsha Weidner, ‘Latter Days of The Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 850 - 1850’, Kansas, 1994, pages 156 - 160. 2 Ibid., page 156. 3 Derek Gillman, ‘A New Image in Chinese Buddhist Sculpture of the Tenth to Thirteenth Century’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, volume 47, London, 1982 - 83, pages 33 - 44, where the author suggests that such figures may have been influenced by Buddhist sculpture from Sri Lanka.