Christie’s Art d’Asie sale on December, 11 2024 :
Focus on one of its highlight !
This December, the Art d’Asie sale presents 230 lots of important porcelain and works of art, including rare Buddhist sculptures, important thangkas, lacquer, jade and fine porcelain.
Highlights feature a selection of extremely rare gilt-bronze figures including a 14th-century Tibetan example of Amitayus and a beautiful 15th-century painting showing Buddha Shakyamuni and Sthaviras, both from a distinguished European collection.
Almost all objects in the sale come from private European, French, UK and Asian collections. The auction includes a rare and important blue and white ‘fruit and flower’ hexafoil bowl with a six- character Xuande mark and of the period (1426–35), previously in the personal collection of Carl Alfred Jensen (1886–1953), Denmark.
From the Qianlong reign, another highlight is a large flambé-glazed Hu vase from a private Scottish collection. Also from the Qing dynasty, we will present a spinach-green jade dragon seal and a pale celadon jade seated figure of Buddha.
After the success of the first part of the collection sold in New York in September, the December Paris sale will also present the second part of a beautiful netsuke collection from an Important European Private Collector.
A RARE AND IMPORTANT GILT-BRONZEFIGURE OF AMITAYUS
TIBET, 14TH CENTURY
Height : 42,6 cm (133/4 in.)
US$ 330,000 – 540,000 (£ 260,000 – 420,000 /
EUR 300,000 – 500,000)
Provenance:
Collection of Harish K. Patel, New York, before 1997.
Christie’s New York, 14 September 2010, lot 88.
With Jules Speelman, London, 2010.
Exhibition:
Tibet: Tradition and Change, the Albuquerque Museum, 18 October 1997 – 19 January 1998
Buddha.108 encounters, Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt-Main, 26 February – 7 June 2015.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Pratapaditya Pal, et. al., Tibet: Tradition and Change, exh. cat., Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, 1997, cat. no. 42a, pp. 84-85.
Stephan von der Schulenburg, Elke Hessel, et. al., Buddha. 108 Encounters, exh. cat., Wienand Verlag, Cologne, 2015, cat. no. 90, pp. 282-283.
Amitayus is the Buddha of Infinite Life and the one who grants long life. He is considered as a special emanation of Buddha Amitabha and one of the most popular deities of Tibetan Buddhism. He is represented here in his traditional iconography seated in vajrasana with both hands resting on his lap in the dhyanamudra or meditation gesture.Originally, he may have held a jar containing the amrita or the elixir of immortality. Amitayus is richly ornamented with jewels and a crown, all finely inlaid with semi-precious stones. He wears a dhoti superbly incised with scrolling tendrils. Along his upper arms lotuses are flowering, both of the padma type. The right lotus is further supporting the vessel of long life topped by a small decorative finial said to be a sprig from a tree in Sukhavati or the Western Paradise. His crown is adorned with a half-vajra symbolizing the indestructible nature of the mind.
The fluid style of this very rare figure, its high copper alloy beneath the rich gilding and lavishly use of semi-precious stone inlay most probably links it to Newari craftsman working in one of the ateliers in Southern Tibet during the fourteenth century. These Newari craftsmen from the Kathmandu Valley were amongst the highest skilled metalworkers known and were asked by important monasteries and high placed officials in countries where Tibetan Buddhism flourished. The renown of the Newari bronze workers was based for instance on their mastery of fire gilding. Hereby the reddish hot gold fused with mercury and was applied to the copper image, creating a vibrant quality in its gilding. Newari artists worked predominantly with copper, rather than with brass or bronze. Although less durable than both other metals, the softness of the copper created a sense of vitality to be imbued into the cast figures. The presented Amitayus figure shares many similarities to a pure Newari, Malla period, Amitayus published by M. M. Grewenig and E. Rist (ed.) in Buddha: 2000 Years of Buddhist Art, 232 Masterpieces, Edition Volklinger Hutte, Wienand Verlag, Cologne 2016, no. 139.
More information : Christie's
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
11 Dec 10:30 AM (CET) Lots 1-90
11 Dec 02:30 PM (CET) Lots 91-215
Christie’s Paris
9 avenue Matignon
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