A RARE GILT-BRONZE VOTIVE FIGURE OF AVALOKITESVARA NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY, DATED TO THE SECOND YEAR OF SHENGUI PERIOD (IN ACCORDANCE WITH 519)

modelled in the form of Avalokitesvara standing against a flame-shaped mandorla on a splayed lotus base resting on a four-legged plinth, clad in long flowing robes with hems flaring out to the sides, the left hand holding a kundika, depicted with a downcast countenance framed by a topknot and a circular halo on the mandorla enclosing radiating lotus petals, the mandorla further decorated with swirling flames extending from the bottom to the pointed tip, the reverse incised with nine seated Buddhas, the splayed sides and reverse of the plinth with an indistinct dedicatory inscription dated to the second year of the Shengui period (in accordance with 519)

Collection of Sato Gengen (1888-1963).

Saburo Matsubara, Chugoku Bukkyo Chokoku Shi Kenkyu [Chinese Buddhist Sculpture - A study based on bronze and stone statues other than works from cave temples], Tokyo, 1961, pls. 74a-b.
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, pls. 79a-c.
Saburo Matsubara, Chugoku Bukkyo Choukuku Shi Ron/History of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1995, vol. I, pls. 167a-b.

As visible in the catalogue photo, the tip of the mandorla is bruised, with a loss of approx. 1cm. There is bruising to the edge of the mandorla, and other general surface wear throughout. Minor rubbing to the gilding, and malachite-green oxidisation to the surface, especially the reverse and lower part of the plinth, obscuring some of the inscription.
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The image of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara was particularly popular in the Northern Wei period. Standing majestically, framed against a delicately incised mandorla, the current figure is depicted bearing an indistinct kundika vessel, which enables an identification with Avalokitesvara, as opposed to other standing figures popular in the Northern Wei period, including Maitreya.

Several smaller sculptures of standing figures framed against mandorlas, including Avalokitesvara and Maitreya, are recorded in private and museum collections, but the majority lacks any inscription, unlike the current figure, which is dated in accordance with 519. For two closely related but undated figures of Maitreya in the Freer Gallery, see Hugo Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Tokyo, 1967, pls. 21 and 22. Compare also an Eastern Wei gilt-bronze figure of Maitreya, dated to 536, formerly in the collection of Duanfang and now in the collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, C355, illustrated by Osvald Siren, Chinese sculpture from the fifth to the fourteenth century, New York, 1925, pl. 158. For another example sold at auction, see a figure sold in our New York rooms, 15th September 2010, lot 286.