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Lot 135
Anonymous (17th century) Manjusri and Samantabhadra
16 December 2021, 10:00 PST
Los AngelesSold for US$40,312.50 inc. premium
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Anonymous (17th century)
Manjusri and Samantabhadra
Ink and mineral pigments on silk now mounted on paper and canvas, two paintings each framed, one painting depicting the bodhisattva Manjusri (Ch: Wenshu), his head and upper chest haloed, in his hands a willow branch and a cup, the bejeweled bodhisattva seated on a recumbent blue Buddhist lion at a rocky outcropping over waves from which red and pink lotuses grow, nearby a wutong tree with swirling clouds weaving through the sheltering leaves overhead; the other painting depicting the bodhisattva Samantabhadra (Ch: Puxian) similarly seated in landscape on a recumbent white elephant near a pine tree over waves, in his right hand a long-stemmed lotus supporting a scripture book likely of the Lotus Sutra.
56 1/4 x 27 3/4in (142.9 x 70.5cm) the paintings
64 1/2 x 36 1/4in (164 x 92.1cm) framed (2).
Ink and mineral pigments on silk now mounted on paper and canvas, two paintings each framed, one painting depicting the bodhisattva Manjusri (Ch: Wenshu), his head and upper chest haloed, in his hands a willow branch and a cup, the bejeweled bodhisattva seated on a recumbent blue Buddhist lion at a rocky outcropping over waves from which red and pink lotuses grow, nearby a wutong tree with swirling clouds weaving through the sheltering leaves overhead; the other painting depicting the bodhisattva Samantabhadra (Ch: Puxian) similarly seated in landscape on a recumbent white elephant near a pine tree over waves, in his right hand a long-stemmed lotus supporting a scripture book likely of the Lotus Sutra.
56 1/4 x 27 3/4in (142.9 x 70.5cm) the paintings
64 1/2 x 36 1/4in (164 x 92.1cm) framed (2).
Footnotes
文殊菩薩、普賢菩薩像 水墨、金屬彩絹本 鏡片两幅
In Mahayana Buddhism, Manjusri and Samantabhadra are usually depicted as attendants accompanying the Sakyamuni Buddha to form the Sakyamuni Triad. Manjusri represents wisdom and knowledge, while Samantabhadra represents universal virtue. Both bodhisattvas are depicted here using fine, sinuous ink lines and rich mineral pigments. Their gazes are soft and downcast, and their slight smiles gentle, as though both are gazing at the wonder of the red, pink, and white lotuses having emerged from the undulating waves below, and bestowing on all sentient beings enlightenment and purity of mind embodied by the lotus flower.
Depictions of Manjusri and Samantabhadra with their vehicle animals were a popular subject in East Asian painting, with extant images of the Shakyamuni Triad in both sculpture and paintings. A Shakyamuni Triad dated to the Yuan dynasty at the Cleveland Museum of Art (acc. no. 2009.342) utilizes the triptych format to form a balanced composition with the vehicled Manjusri and Samantabhadra on separate scrolls, flanking the central painting of Shakyamuni (fig. 1). A Kamakura period (1185-1333) Shaka Triad at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 29.100.469) kept the symmetrical pyramidal composition but with the three figures on one scroll (fig. 2). The placement of bodhisattvas in (heavenly) landscapes also has a long precedence in Chinese Buddhist paintings, dating back to the Tang dynasty with the murals of Dunhuang. Similar in composition to the present lot, a Ming dynasty painting of Guanyin on Potalaka places the seated bodhisattva Avalokitesvara on a rock surrounded by crashing waves, with mist swirling around stalks of bamboo in the background (image reproduced in Weidner, Marsha, ed., Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism, 850-1850, plate 24, cat. 48).
For contemporaneous images of Manjusri presented on his lion mount and in a landscape, see Two large paintings of Manjusri, 17th-18th century, Christie's New York, 23 September 2021, lot 774.