Footnotes

• 明晚期 銅鎏金髹漆碧霞元君坐像
  
  Provenance:
  Sotheby's London, 15 May 2013, lot 151
  
  來源：
  倫敦蘇富比，2013年5月15日，拍品編號151
  
  The imposing figure can be identified as Bixia yuanjun, also known as the Sovereign of the Clouds of Dawn or the Goddess of the Morning Clouds, by the representation of the three phoenixes in the headdress. The goddess was the daughter of the male god of Mount Tai, the easternmost of the Five Sacred Mountains in Shandong Province, where the Palace of the Clouds of Dawn, Bixia Gong, was built at the top of the mountain as her shrine during the Ming dynasty. Figures of Bixia yuanjun are a personification of the yin force and made for use on Daoist altars.
  
  The goddess was one of the most popular Daoist deities from the Ming dynasty onward. However, relatively few bronze figures of such impressive size as the present lot would appear to be published. See a larger bronze figure of Bixia yuanjun, 15th century, in the Art Institute of Chicago, illustrated by S.Little and K.Schipper, Taoism and the Arts of China, California, 2000, p.278, no.95; and see also a smaller gilt-bronze figure of Bixia yuanjun, Ming dynasty, in the British Museum (museum no.1908,0420.6).
  
  此坐像尺寸碩大，面相圓潤，表情溫婉，雙目微合，頭戴鳳冠，頭頂束高髮髻。全身漆金而飾，於耳墜、衣褶以及霞帔瓔珞處再以彩漆髹飾，上身著圓領外套，胸前繫長裙，雙手握一笏，神態端莊，雍容華貴。
  
  碧霞元君為宋代以來道教崇拜的一位重要女神，最早來自華北地區對山神的信仰，後來在民間的名氣及信仰遠遠超過西王母。碧霞元君也被稱為「東嶽泰山天仙玉女碧霞元君」、「泰山娘娘」、「泰山老奶奶」、「泰山老母」、「泰山聖母」、「萬山奶奶」等，明代則已於五嶽之尊的東嶽泰山上建有碧霞宮作為其道場。
  
  此尊銅造像體量碩大，傳世品中以此等尺寸鑄造之例並不多見。美國芝加哥藝術博物館藏一件明代十五世紀碧霞元君銅像可資參考，著錄於Stephen Little 及 Kristofer Schipper，《Taoism and the Arts of China》，加州，2000年，頁278，圖95；另見大英博物館藏一例明代銅鎏金碧霞元君像，博物館編號1908,0420.6。