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国内拍卖首页 > Galerie Zacke > 龍年賀歲-無底價拍賣會 > Lot 355
‘BUDDHAS, BODHISATTVAS, ARHATS, AND A VAJRAPANI’
奥地利
2024年03月01日 开拍
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Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價

Published: Roderick Whitfield (editor), Classic Chinese Art: Selected Catalogue of the Paintings and Calligraphy from the Wou Lien-Pai Museum, Surrey, 2011, pp. 18-20 and 111, no. 8.

China, Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Ink, watercolors, gouache, and gold highlights on silk. Mounted as a hanging scroll with a paper frame. Finely painted with five buddhas above four bodhisattvas, nine luohan, and a fierce Vajrapani, all amid thick scrolling five-color clouds.

Inscriptions: Upper left, titled ‘Buddhas of the Ten Directions, Eight Great Bodhisattvas, Luohans, and a Vajrapani’.

Provenance: From the collection of Dr. Wou Kiuan. Wou Lien-Pai Museum, coll. no. 130. Dr. Wou Kiuan (1910-1997) was a Chinese diplomat and a noted scholar of Chinese art. His father, Wou Lien-Pai (1873-1944), was one the leading political figures of early 20th century China, remembered for his role as speaker and leader of parliament during the turbulent years of the Republican era. Dr. Wou himself embarked on an illustrious career in diplomacy until his retirement in 1952, when he settled in London and devoted the rest of his life to the study of Chinese art. It was no doubt fortuitous that Dr. Wou’s years of collecting coincided with an abundant availability of exceptional Chinese art on the London market. From the mid-1950s to the late 1960s he was able to form a collection of well over 1,000 works that together represented virtually every category of Chinese art. At the heart of Dr. Wou’s drive to collect was a burning desire to preserve the relics of China’s rich historical past scattered across Europe, and to promote Chinese art and culture. It is unclear when Dr. Wou conceived the idea to create a place to house his collection, but in 1968, he opened the doors to the Wou Lien-Pai Museum, named in honor of his father. Over the years the museum became a ‘must see’ destination for collectors, academics, and visiting dignitaries, and Dr. Wou would delight in leading his visitors through the galleries, recounting stories of China’s glorious history.
Condition: Good condition with wear, creases, small tears, and minor losses with associated old repairs. The paper frame in similar condition with losses, tears, creasing, and associated repairs. Presenting overall very well given its age and material.

Dimensions: Image size 83.8 x 134 cm, Size incl. frame 94.3 x 184 cm

The grandest of the Buddhist mortuary rites is the Water-Land (shuilu) ritual. This esoteric ceremony is conducted for the salvation of “all souls of the dead on land and sea.” The ostentatious ritual was performed for imperial ancestors and high officials from the Song (960–1279) to the Ming dynasties and drew large crowds. On the second day of the weeklong ceremony, paintings are hung in the inner altar.

Originally one of a pair, most likely flanking a central painting of the Buddha. It has been claimed that the total of twelve characters is a feature of a painting created at the imperial court. Almost certainly, the matching right-hand painting of the pair would have featured another inscription in gold, with details of the temple where it was dedicated and the date.

At the top of the painting, against a background of auspicious 'five-colored' clouds, are five of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions. They are not individually identified, but display different mudras or hand gestures. From the left, these are: abhaya, dharmacakra, anjali, abhaya, and dhyani mudra.

Immediately below them are four of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas, who are more easily identifiable by the attributes they hold. From the left, the first figure, holding a khakkhara or priest's staff, and with a Sanskrit seed character in his headdress, is Kshitigarbha; next to him, holding a ruyi or wish-fulfilling sceptre, is Sarvanivaranavishkambin; following him is Maitreya holding a fan on which is depicted the sun and moon and a two-story building representing the Tushita Paradise in which he resides; and finally Samantabhadra.

Similarly, the group of nine luohan in this painting would have been completed by a parallel group in the facing painting. Although they are not all immediately identifiable, they have very distinctive characters, old and young, Chinese and foreign. The first figure in the second row, holding a fan with outline clouds, is Pindola, an old man with immensely long, white eyebrows.

Museum comparison:
Compare a pair of related Water-Land ritual paintings, dated 1454, in the Cleveland Art Museum, accession number 1973.70.

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拍品估价：4,000 - 8,000 欧元 起拍价格：4,000 欧元  买家佣金： 35.00%

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