A fine rare pale green jade carving of Buddha
18th century
The pale green stone delicately formed as a serene Buddha seated in the lotus position with robes flowing over both shoulders to sweep down in rounded folds at the front, the hair carefully curled around a shallow usnisha at the top, the hands clasped in his lap and supporting a tall pagoda containing a miniature seated Buddha, all supported on a crisply incised lotus pedestal, wood stand.
17.3cm (6¾in) high (2).
The pale green stone delicately formed as a serene Buddha seated in the lotus position with robes flowing over both shoulders to sweep down in rounded folds at the front, the hair carefully curled around a shallow usnisha at the top, the hands clasped in his lap and supporting a tall pagoda containing a miniature seated Buddha, all supported on a crisply incised lotus pedestal, wood stand.
17.3cm (6¾in) high (2).
Sold for
£133,250
inc. premium
Footnotes
- 十八世紀 御製青玉雕托塔坐佛
Buddhism flourished during the Qing Dynasty, as the early Manchu sympathies with Mongolian Buddhism prior to their conquest of China expanded to embrace Tibetan Lamaism also. The reigns of the three great Qing emperors, Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong in particular, witnessed a great resurgence of Tibetan Buddhist patronage. Not merely for the sake of political expediency, Qianlong took an enthusiastic personal interest in the religion, and fostered the devotions of his mother, the Empress Xiaoshen, with lavish commissions of Buddhist sculptures and paintings for occasions such as her birthday.
The present lot expresses this Imperial interest in Buddhist art in the most favoured Chinese medium of jade. Carved with exceptional skill and care to the exacting standards of the Qianlong period, undoubtedly impressive but still exhibiting intimacy and meditative calm, it could have graced the personal rooms or an Imperial altar in one of the palaces.
Compare a very similar jade figure of Buddha from the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware (II), Beijing, 2008, pl.171.
A larger related example of a white jade figure of Buddha, dated to 18th/19th century, was sold at Christie's New York, 26 March 2010, lot 1104.
Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art
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