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Expert’s note
The Qianlong Emperor was closely identified with Manjushri (Chinese: Wenshu), the bodhisattva of transcendent wisdom, and was widely presented in Tibetan Buddhist contexts as an emanation of the deity. This association gave rise to the popular designation “Manjushri Emperor,” reinforcing Qianlong’s image as both a universal Buddhist ruler and a divinely sanctioned patron of Tibetan Buddhism. In the Manzhou yuanliu kao (1777), commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor himself, Tibetan sources addressing the Qing ruler as the “Ma?ju?rī Great Emperor” were invoked to associate the name Manju (Manchu) with Ma?ju?rī. Ultimately, Qianlong cultivated this association to reinforce his sacred legitimacy as both Manchu emperor and Buddhist universal ruler, particularly among his Tibetan and Mongolian subjects.
China, Qianlong period (1736-1795).
Superbly worked in remarkably sturdy and solid repoussé to depict the Qianlong Emperor as the bodhisattva Manjushri (Wenshu), his left hand raised in vitarka mudra and the right lowered in varada mudra, seated in lalitasana atop an exquisitely modeled Buddhist lion with bulging eyes, curling brows, a wide snout, and a luxuriant mane, its body covered with overlapping scales and terminating in a long sweeping tail. A richly chased saddlecloth extends across its back, decorated on the reverse with a sinuous five-clawed dragon amid cloud scrolls enclosed by finely worked ornamental borders.
The deity is clad in voluminous robes richly decorated with large lotus blossoms borne on scrolling vines, and adorned with elaborate beaded jewelry, centered at the chest by a large turquoise inlay. The softly rounded face bears a contemplative expression, with heavy-lidded eyes beneath gently arched brows, a distinctive nose which is the strongest clue for this important subject, and full lips forming a calm smile, flanked by long pendulous earlobes. Two long tresses emerge from beneath the tiara and fall gracefully over the shoulders.
The base is sealed with a gilt-bronze plate neatly incised with a double vajra.
Provenance: From the private collection of a lady residing at Sutton Place, New York, USA. Following her passing, the collection passed by inheritance to her heirs.
Condition: Very good condition with expected wear and irregularities. Rubbing and minor losses to gilt, few small losses, minor tears to the lion’s hindlegs, and a few minimal areas of warping or bending. The turquoise inlay is a later addition. The bronze with a rich, naturally grown, smooth patina.
Weight: 6.2 kg
Dimensions: Height 45 cm, Length 36 cm
The present group was conceived not merely as an image of Manjushri, but as an imperial portrait-image of the Qianlong Emperor in the bodhisattva’s form, evidently intended for presentation to the Emperor and possibly commissioned as a birthday tribute by a Tibetan or Mongolian patron. Unlike the idealized countenances ordinarily given to Buddhist deities, the face is strikingly individualized, with narrow eyes, a compact mouth, and, most notably, the long and prominent nose characteristic of Qianlong’s known portraits.
Compare the later hanging scroll preserving the Emperor’s youthful likeness in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession number 42.141.8 (fig. 1). This association is reinforced by the lion’s magnificently worked caparison, prominently decorated with imperial dragons pursuing a flaming pearl amid clouds and waves. The subject, portrait likeness, and Imperial emblems could scarcely have been combined accidentally: they identify the rider simultaneously as Manjushri and as the Manjushri Emperor.
Qianlong’s identification with Manjushri was central to both his personal faith and his presentation of Qing sovereignty to the Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist world. This identification is most explicitly expressed in the celebrated mid-18th-century imperial thangka in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, accession number F2000.4, in which Qianlong’s portrait, painted by Giuseppe Castiglione, is incorporated into the body of Manjushri at the center of a Tibetan Buddhist cosmos (fig. 2). A Tibetan inscription confirms him as an incarnation of the bodhisattva and ruler of the Buddhist faith. Qianlong repeatedly returned to Manjushri in his writings and patronage. In 1761, he composed an encomium specifically for an Imperial boxwood carving of Manjushri seated on a lion, exhibited by J.J. Lally & Co., New York, in Elegantly Made: Art for the Chinese Literati, 13-27 March 2020, no. 24 (fig. 3). The importance of the lion-riding form during his reign is further demonstrated by the monumental silk appliqué of Manjushri riding a blue lion, probably made in the Suzhou imperial workshop as a gift for a Tibetan monastery and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession number 15.95.154 (fig. 4). Qianlong also commissioned temples dedicated to Manjushri, undertook pilgrimages to Mount Wutai, the bodhisattva’s earthly abode, and repeatedly celebrated the deity in his imperial poetry.
Religious images formed an important part of the diplomatic exchange between the Qing throne and the Tibetan and Mongolian hierarchies. Records of the imperial collections identify numerous figures of Manjushri presented by the Dalai and Panchen Lamas. The most compelling historical context for the present work is Qianlong’s seventieth birthday celebrations in 1780, for which the Sixth Panchen Lama made the long journey from Tashi Lhunpo to Chengde and brought numerous costly Buddhist tributes. Among them was a Tibetan statue of Tsongkhapa on a gold pedestal, which Qianlong subsequently ordered the Imperial workshops to reproduce. A version cast in pure gold in 1781 is preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and was included in the museum’s special exhibition The Khubilghan: The Incarnated Lamas of the Qing Dynasty and Related Artifacts, 2020-2021 (fig. 5). Within this established culture of diplomatic presentation, an image combining Manjushri with Qianlong’s own likeness would have been an especially meaningful birthday offering: at once a sacred image, an imperial portrait, and a declaration of the emperor’s wisdom, longevity, and universal Buddhist kingship.
Metallurgy analysis confirms that the sculpture was fashioned from virtually pure copper, with only a trace of lead and covered with mercury-amalgam gilding of remarkably high gold content (22.6 carats). The choice of almost unalloyed copper was technically deliberate: its superior malleability permitted the metal to be repeatedly annealed, hammered, raised, and chased into the remarkably complex forms seen here, from the sensitively modeled face and supple hands to the lion’s individually delineated hairs, overlapping curls, and densely ornamented saddlecloth. Such materials and techniques occur in imperial Chinese as well as Tibetan and Mongolian sculpture and therefore do not alone identify the place of manufacture; here, however, they form part of an unmistakably Qianlong Imperial conception.
Alloy composition: Cu: 99,9 ± 3; Pb: 0,1 ± 0,1; Gilding: Au: 94,3 ± 2,8; Cu: 2,9 ± 0,2; Ag: 2,9 ± 0,1.
X-ray images (available upon request) reveal the sculpture’s hidden technical achievement: a complex hollow construction assembled from numerous separately worked copper elements, precisely shaped and joined to produce a monumental group of extraordinary coherence. Every visible surface was then subjected to meticulous secondary working, the minutely chased dragons, floral scrolls, textile patterns, jewelry, hair, fur, and feathers transforming metal sheet into a dazzling variety of textures. Whether executed within an imperial atelier in Beijing or by a leading workshop serving a Tibetan or Mongolian patron within the Qing sphere, a work of this ambition could only have arisen from the immense wealth, sophisticated organization, and unrivaled technical culture of 18th-century China.
Taken together, the individualized likeness, iconography, imperial dragons, double-vajra consecration plate, lavish gilding, and astonishing repoussé construction establish the present group as a masterpiece of Qianlong imperial Buddhist art, most plausibly created as a diplomatic birthday presentation to the Manjushri Emperor himself.
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| Galerie Zacke | |
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