佛像鉴定鉴赏收藏

尺寸：高20cm
年代：北魏
质地：铜鎏金
风格：中原
来源：拍卖会
成交：4,040,000港元(2016.10)
参阅：香港苏富比
鉴赏：
坂本五郎珍藏早期佛教铜像

释迦牟尼佛坐像，姿态沉静自然，焰形背光，线条流畅有力，面容衣袍描写自然，垂坠衣褶若显犍陀罗雕塑可见之希腊式风格，亦现印度艺术对於北魏佛教雕塑之强烈影响。

A RARE GILT-BRONZE VOTIVE FIGURE OF SAKYAMUNI BUDDHA NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY

finely case as Sakyamuni Buddha seated on a high plinth resting on four splayed legs, against a flame-shaped mandorla cast in relief with three dhyani figures, framing the head of the seated Buddha, the mandorla densely decorated with swirls of ferocious flames along the edges and encircling each small Buddha, the splayed sides and reverse of the plinth with traces of a dedicatory inscription, with indistinct characters muni, indicating for Sakyamuni, the reverse of the mandorla undecorated, wood stand

Literature
Saburo Matsubara, Zoutei Chugoku Bukkyo Choukoku Shi Kenkyu [Chinese Buddhist Sculpture - A study based on bronze and stone statues other than works from cave temples], Tokyo, 1966, pl. 37c.

Catalogue Note
Skilfully cast with a fluid depiction of Sakyamuni Buddha, framed by a powerful flaming mandorla, the modelling of the face and treatment of the robes, which fall in undulations across the legs, evoke the Hellenistic style so present on Gandharan sculpture and reveal the strong Indian influence still present on bronze Buddhist sculpture of the Northern Wei period.

The iconography and large size of the figure is extremely rare, although another gilt-bronze figure of Buddha, surrounded by three smaller images of Buddha, in the Shodo Museum, Tokyo, is illustrated in Mizuno Seiichi, Chugoku No Choukoku: Sekibutsu. Kondobutsu/Bronze and Stone Sculpture of China: from the Yin to the T'ang Dynasty, Tokyo, 1960, pl. 107A. The Shodo Museum figure, incised with an inscription dated to the 13th year of Taihe, corresponding to 489, is stylistically very close to the current figure in form and iconography, with identical treatment of the figures, their drapery, and intricate detailing on the flaming mandorla, suggesting that the current figure may also be of the Taihe period. Compare also a gilt-bronze figure of identical iconography, incised with an inscription dated to the 22nd year of the Taihe reign, corresponding to 498, included in the exhibition Rijucho Jidai No Kondobutsu (Gilt Bronze Figures from Six Dynasties), Izumishi Kuboso Kinen Museum, Osaka, 1991, no. 62, and sold at Christie’s New York, 19th/20th September 2013, lot 1460.

For a Northern Wei gilt-bronze figure of similar quality sold at auction, see the figure of Buddha surrounded by the five Wisdom Tathagatas, dated 5th year of Huangxing, corresponding to 471, included in the exhibition Chugoku Kodai Choukoku Ten (Exhibition of Chinese Ancient Sculpture), Nihonbashi Takashimaya, Tokyo, 1959, no. C.7, and sold in our New York rooms, 14th September 2011, lot 315.