A small gilt-bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara, Sui / Early Tang dynasty | 隋 / 唐初 鎏金銅觀音菩薩立像

This sensitively cast figure depicts the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara standing on a hollow lotus base on an octagonal plinth, wearing an elaborate long trailing shawl and a dhoti tied with a sash. The slender body held in an erect yet graceful pose exemplifies the essence of Sui sculptural style, and bears only the slightest hint of the more sensuous forms to follow in the Tang dynasty. The attribute of the willow branch, that first appears in the late 6th century, corroborates the identification of the figure and period. A similar Sui dynasty gilt-bronze figure in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is published in Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven, 2010, pl. 12. Both share the same exaggerated supine form, depicted clasping the willow tightly in the right hand, with similar sweep towards the left hip, so characteristic of the art of the Sui dynasty, with similar treatment of the cascading robes.

See also a closely related sculpture from the Avery Brundage Collection and now preserved in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, illustrated in Rene-Yvon Lefevre d'Argencé ed., Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1974, pl.67; and another, from the collection of Fong Chow (1923-2012), sold at Christie's New York, 20th March 2014, lot 2048, and later offered in our Hong Kong rooms, 12th October 2021, lot 3511, from the collection of Jane and Leopold Swergold.