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全球拍卖首页 > Sotheby's HK > 中国艺术珍品 > Lot 3614
A monumental and extremely rare limestone head of Vairocana Buddha, Tang dynasty | 唐 石灰岩雕寶冠佛首
香港 北京时间
2023年04月08日 开拍 / 2023年04月06日 截止委托
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Lot Details Description A monumental and extremely rare limestone head of Vairocana Buddha,? Tang dynasty 唐 石灰岩雕寶冠佛首 43 by 43 by h. 56 cm; overall h. 106 cm Condition report Provenance Yamanaka & Co., Osaka, 1924. An old Japanese private collection, by repute. 山中商會，大阪，1924年 傳日本私人舊藏 Exhibited Shina ko bijutsu taikan / Catalogue of a Collection of Chinese Art,?Yamanaka & Co., Osaka, 1924, cat. no. 113. 《支那古美術大觀》，山中商會，大阪，1924年，編號113 Catalogue note Auspicious Image of Vairocana Buddha Regina Krahl This monumental stone sculpture is exceptional not only in its size. It represents an extraordinary depiction of the Buddha in royal attire, wearing a crown, carved in the Tang metropolitan style that was patronized for a short period of time by the court at the capital Chang’an, modern Xi’an in Shaanxi province, under the auspices of the Empress Wu. Only one closely related sculpture appears to be recorded, one of the major seated Buddha figures at the Longmen Cave Temples in Henan province. The Buddha is almost invariably depicted in plain monks’ robes and without jewellery, to indicate that upon his enlightenment as a young crown prince, he renounced his royal status and embarked on a monastic lifestyle. Through his majestic poise and powerful presence, this sculpture is unmistakeably identified as an image of the Buddha; this is further confirmed iconographically by his tight curls of hair, an identifier usually explained as the hair that emerged on his head after the Buddha had cut off his long strands. He is thus clearly distinguished from images of Bodhisattvas and other bejewelled figures of the Buddhist pantheon. Depictions of a bejewelled and crowned Buddha would seem to contradict the archetypical portrayal of this deity and are exceedingly rare, but nevertheless occupy a firm place in the history of Buddhist sculpture. Such Buddha images first appeared in the Hindu Kush and Greater Kashmir regions, but their appearance in China, where they are usually depicted performing the earth-witness gesture, is believed to have followed a different route (Dorothy C. Wong, Buddhist Pilgrim-Monks as Agents of Cultural and Artistic Transmission, Singapore, 2018). One of the most sacred Buddhist sites and compelling destination of pilgrims was the Mahābodhi Temple at Bodhgayā in northeastern India, in the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadha, where the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment. “As a sacred site for pilgrimage, Bodhgayā became even more prominent from the sixth and seventh centuries onward, when the rebuilding of the Mahābodhi Temple coincided with the installation of a Buddha statue with the earth-touching gesture, symbolic of the Buddha’s calling upon the earth to bear witness to his victory over evil. Miracles enshroud the creation of the image itself, and later it became a famous icon widely copied throughout the Buddhist world. …the legends surrounding the image that developed in China contributed to Chinese pilgrims visiting India to pay homage to the site and the sacred statue, and to seek experiences of the numinous and validation of their piety. In turn they brought replicas of the statue back to China, contributing to the spread of the image type.” (Dorothy C. Wong, ‘The Light-Emitting Image of Magadha in Tang Buddhist Art’, Ars Orientalis, vol. 50, 2020, p. 126). The so-called ‘light-emitting’ Buddha image in Bodhgayā was believed to be of sacred origin, the sculptor having been revealed as Maitreya Bodhisattva. Since his work was said to have been interrupted, his image remained unfinished and was therefore subsequently bejewelled and crowned by the local Buddhist congregation. The statue and its coronation rituals were reported to the Tang (618-907) court by travelling monks, such as the monk and translator of Buddhist scriptures Xuanzang (c. 602-664), who had travelled to India between 626 and 645 and upon his return completed a report about his travels, where he wrote: “they placed above the breast, where the work was as yet unfinished, a necklace of precious stones and jewels, whilst on the head they placed a diadem of encircling gems, exceedingly rich” (Wong 2018, op.cit., p. 58, quoting a translation of Samuel Beal). Xuanzang propagated the distribution in China of small clay tablets of the Buddha called Puti ruixiang?(‘auspicious image of the Buddha’s attainment of enlightenment’), based on the image he had seen in India. Some of them showed the Buddha bejewelled and wearing a crown. Xuanzang was among the many monks surrounding the great patroness of Buddhist causes and later Empress Wu Zetian (624-705). Wu, erstwhile concubine of Emperor Tang Taizong (r. 626-649), wife of Emperor Gaozong (r. 649-683), power behind the throne for some of his reign as well as those of her two sons, when officially Empress Dowager (683-690), and eventually self-proclaimed Empress (r. 690-705), defined China’s fate for about half a century and even changed the name of the dynasty from Tang to Zhou. She exerted major influence not only on the country’s politics, but also on her arts and initiated one of the greatest flowerings of China’s plastic arts. She was a fervent patron of Buddhist causes, who used Buddhism as legitimization of her rule, to which she had no proper claim. She called herself the incarnation of the Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future, and as such justified her seizure of the imperial throne as the only female Emperor of China. Empress Wu sponsored the translation and dissemination of Buddhist sutra texts, invited Buddhist patriarchs and teachers to the palace and encouraged the teaching of the Buddhist doctrine. In the name of Emperor Gaozong and on her own she commissioned many building projects of temples in the capital and cave temples with Buddhist sculptures, most notably at the Longmen Caves outside Luoyang in Henan, where the main image, the monumental central Buddha Vairocana, was conceived to represent her likeness. Her reign marks the fully matured style of Buddhist stone sculpture. She was surrounded at court by foreign monks who propagated more esoteric aspects of Buddhism and according iconographic traditions. Through the small clay tablets brought by Xuanzang from India, bejewelled Buddha figures of the Bodhgayā type arrived in China in the mid-seventh century. From the end of the seventh century onwards, under the auspices of Empress Wu, such images were also produced in the Tang capital region, in form of larger reliefs and statues. Bejewelled Buddha images remained, however, very rare, and an even smaller number among these was depicted also wearing a crown. Among the very few Tang images depicting the crowned Buddha, the main ones are all related to Wu’s period of influence. The only significant comparison for the present head also comes from Longmen. The free-standing, seated Buddha from the Southern Leigutai Cave, generally dated to around 700, is also much over life-size (237 cm tall), and is depicted bejewelled and crowned and with similarly compelling facial features (fig. 1). The Leigutai Buddha has been endlessly illustrated, for example, in Wen Yucheng, ed., Zhongguo meishu quanji: Diaosu bian [Complete series on Chinese art: Sculpture section], 11: Longmen shiku diaoke [Longmen cave sculptures], Shanghai, 1988, pl. 187; it was exhibited at the Miho Museum, Shigaraki, on the occasion of the Museum’s exhibition Longmen Caves (n.p., 2001), cat. no. 34, where it featured on the catalogue cover, and was also included in the exhibition China. Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004, cat. no. 192. In Leigutai south cave the walls were also carved with small Buddhas wearing crowns, see Wong 2018, op.cit., p. 63, fig. 2.4. A crowned Buddha, carved in a different style and much smaller, appears also on a stone stele linked to Wu Zetian. One of the temples the Empress had built in the capital, Chang’an, was the Guangzhaisi. It was erected in 677 at a site where some Buddhist relics had been found, and towards the end of her reign, around 703/4, she commissioned the addition of a pagoda to the temple, Qibaotai, the Tower of Seven Jewels. The temple no longer exists, but some thirty stone stelae carved in high relief are preserved from the interior of the pagoda, among them one with a bejewelled and crowned Buddha figure in earth-touching gesture, preserved as Important Cultural Property in the Tokyo National Museum; see Wong 2018, op.cit., p. 61, fig. 2.2; Osvald Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, London, 1925 (reprint Bangkok, 1998), pl. 395A; and Yan Juanying, Jinghua shuiyue. Zhongguo gudai meishu kaogu yu fojiao yishu de tantao/Visualizing the Miraculous World, Taipei, 2016, p. 102, fig. 29. Wong also identified crowned Buddha figures in Sichuan, which she equally relates to Wu Zetian, who originated from Sichuan, such as a crowned and bejewelled Buddha of the late seventh/early eighth century from cave 60 in Feixiange, Pujiang, Sichuan (Wong 2018, op.cit., p. 66, fig. 2.7); but the Sichuan style is very different and here the topic continued to be depicted for longer. The transmission of the Bodhgayā image from India via Central Asia to China also left traces along the Silk Route, for example, at the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang, Gansu province. A fragmentary silk painting, which has been found in the Library Cave (cave 17) depicts two rui xiang (‘auspicious images’) of crowned Buddha figures said to represent the light-emitting Buddha from Bodhgayā. Fragments of this painting, which may be of slightly later date, in the 8th century, are now divided between the British Museum and the National Museum, New Delhi (Wong 2020, op.cit., figs 1 and 8; and Roderick Whitfield, ‘Ruixiang at Dunhuang’, in?K. R. van Kooij and H. van der Veere, eds, Function and Meaning in Buddhist Art,?Groningen, 1995, pp.149–156). In Dunhuang, the image also continued to be reproduced for longer. The two main companion figures in stone, the one from Longmen and the one from the Seven Jewel Tower, both show very different crowns. The present head is remarkable in its naturalistic depiction that one can easily understand as an actual piece of jewellery, set with cabochon and square-cut jewels and pearl borders, and with a plaque, freely worked in repoussé, at the front, where the largest jewel is flanked by apsaras. In this constellation, it almost serves as a mandorla framing the Buddha head and, like mandorlas, is depicted as emitting flames at the sides. The jewellery work is reminiscent of the workmanship of an actual necklace but of somewhat earlier date, excavated from the tomb of Li Jingxun at Xi’an, Shaanxi, which is dated to AD 608, as included in China. Dawn of a Golden Age, op.cit., cat. no. 187. The meaning of this crowned figure of the Buddha has been much discussed. Referring no longer to the Buddha’s historical royal identity, it is grounded in esoteric Buddhism. The crown generally refers to the highest level of knowledge and attainment and as such can be seen as a symbol of Buddhahood itself. The coronation has been explained as the consecration of the Buddha as universal, cosmic ruler, cakravartin. While in other Asian contexts, the significance may be more complicated, the Longmen sculpture is interpreted as an esoteric manifestation of Vairocana Buddha, which seems to be the predominant meaning of this image in China. The present Buddha head is exceptional also in the figuration of its face, for which comparisons in stone are difficult to find. The representation is very close, however, to that of two dry-lacquer heads of similar magnificence and rarity, executed around the same time, undoubtedly also under imperial patronage: a Buddha head from the collection of Sakamoto Gorō, included in the exhibition?Kaikan tokubetsu shuppin seihin senshu?[A special inaugural exhibition], Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, 2005, cat. no. 30, and sold in these rooms, 8th October 2013, lot 120 (fig. 2); and a Bodhisattva head, also from an old Japanese collection, also sold in these rooms, 4th April 2017, lot 3015. All three heads show the same idiosyncrasies in their stylisation of the facial features: a forehead that ends in a triangle above the nose, defined by eyebrows in form of grooved arcs, and eyes, lips and – most unusual – nostrils delineated by grooves. These grooves act like double outlines that accentuate each feature and thus emphasize the powerful overall effect. These three Buddhist sculptures could only have been executed by imperial craftsmen working in close proximity in or around the Tang capital. 菩提瑞像，聖光普照 康蕊君 佛首碩大威嚴，寶冠華貴，展現大唐武后當政期間，國都長安（現陝西西安）獨特的朝廷雕刻風格，現知唯一相近作例為河南省龍門石窟主尊佛坐像之一。 佛陀造像，多著素淨僧袍，無纓絡，反映世尊證道前，已捨棄世俗以及悉達多太子身分，修道苦行。此像尊貴莊嚴，無疑是佛陀世尊，再觀頭頂團團螺髮，乃太子削髮為僧後方得，異於佛教中其他菩薩尊聖。 本像寶冠華飾，不似傳統佛陀造像，相當罕見，屬佛教造像史上特殊之一系，首見於興都庫什與喀什米爾一帶，傳至中國後，常見作觸地印，王靜芬，《Buddhist Pilgrim-Monks as Agents of Cultural and Artistic Transmission》，新加坡，2018年，述及此傳播路徑卻有所不同。 印度東北菩提伽耶的摩訶菩提寺，是佛教中最為神聖之遺跡之一，據說釋迦牟尼就是在此證道成佛，乃歷代佛教徒朝聖之地，「作為佛教聖地，六至七世紀之後，菩提伽耶之地位更加重要，遂改建摩訶菩提寺，並立一尊觸地印佛陀造像，象徵佛陀在菩提樹下悟道時，地神湧現，斥退魔軍之瞬間。造像之時神蹟屢現，此後，這尊觸地印像廣為摹造流傳。中國僧人至印度取經朝聖，將此像複製品攜回，遂而傳至中國」。王靜芬，〈The Light-Emitting Image of Magadha in Tang Buddhist Art〉，《Ars Orientalis》，卷50，2020年，頁126。 菩提伽耶的聖像據傳來源殊勝，為彌勒菩薩所造，惟中途受擾，未完成之部分，信眾供獻珍寶珠瓔裝飾，如此儀典原由經玄奘（約602-664年）等僧人傳回大唐，如《大唐西域記》中記載，「乳上未周，填廁眾寶，珠瓔寶冠，奇珍交飾」，見王靜芬，前述出處，2018年，頁58。玄奘將此聖像之小型泥塑摹本傳回中國，很快便流傳開來 ， 稱為「菩提瑞像」，四方爭造，部分造像可見佛陀身著瓔珞，戴寶冠。 武則天（624-705年）崇佛，玄奘與當時許多佛僧都得朝廷資助。武氏原為唐太宗（在位626-649年）才人，後為唐高宗（在位649-683年）皇后，高宗及兒子中宗、睿宗當政期間，實掌大權，後自立為武周皇帝（在位690-705年），改國號為周，實際掌政近半世紀，不僅深遠影響中國政治，且開啟中國藝術的另一篇章，推動文化藝術蓬勃發展。武氏虔誠信佛，且運用宗教建立其君權，自稱是未來佛彌勒下生，以端正其身為女性而能即帝位，統治中國的正統性。 武后力助佛教經典翻譯，奉請高僧入宮，推廣佛教教義，與高宗並名於國都建造許多佛寺及各地石窟，如河南省洛陽龍門石窟，其巨型大日如來主尊，據說以武后面容為本。武周時期，佛教石雕造像藝術之發展更見臻熟，當時朝廷廣納外國僧人，亦帶來不同地區的造像風格與傳統。 七世紀中期，玄奘自印度攜回的菩提瑞像，將菩提伽耶的華麗佛陀形象傳入中國，七世紀末，在武后的支持下，國都長安也可見到此類造像，大型浮雕或圓雕皆有，但總體而言還是少數，戴寶冠者更稀。現知為數甚少的唐代寶冠佛陀像中，主要作例皆受武周時期之影響。 與此尊石雕佛首相類之圓雕佛坐像，出自龍門石窟擂鼓台南洞，造於約西元700年，237公分高，較真人更大，身著瓔珞，頭戴寶冠，面容特徵與本品相似（圖一），曾多次著錄，如，《中國美術全集：雕塑編：卷11龍門石窟雕刻》，上海，1988年，圖版187；曾展出於甲賀市美秀美術館，2001年《龍門石窟》展覽，編號34並刊載於圖錄封面；亦曾展出於《China. Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD》，大都會藝術博物館，紐約，2004年，編號192。擂鼓台南洞岩壁亦雕刻小型戴寶冠佛，見王靜芬，前述出處，2018年，頁63，圖2.4。 另一尊著寶冠的佛陀像，風格相異，尺寸甚小，作於與武后相關的石碑上。唐儀鳳二年（677年）建成的長安光宅寺，正屬武后修築的佛寺之一。該址發現佛舍利，因此八世紀初大周末年，武后命添七寶臺供奉。如今該寺早不復存，但七寶臺約三十餘石碑得以保存，其中一例雕寶冠佛，作觸地印，現藏於東京國立博物館，為重要文化財，見王靜芬，同上，頁61，圖2.2；喜龍仁，《Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century》，倫敦，1925年（曼谷，1998年再版），圖版395A；顏娟瑛，《鏡花水月 : 中國古代美術考古與佛教藝術的探討》，台北，2016年，頁102，圖29。 此外，四川蒲江飛仙閣第六十龕一尊寶冠佛，造於七世紀晚期至八世紀初，作者亦歸其為武后相關，王靜芬，同上，頁66，圖2.7，但此例風格差異甚大，此處之瑞像傳統則繼續延續至後朝。 菩提伽耶的聖像自印度、中亞，傳至中土，也在絲路上留下足跡，如甘肅敦煌莫高窟，一件出自藏經洞的繪畫，可見二尊寶冠佛陀，應是菩提伽耶的菩提瑞像，此畫殘件，應作於八世紀，現分別藏於大英博物館與新德里國立博物館，見王靜芬，前述出處，2020年，圖1、8；韋陀，〈Ruixiang at Dunhuang〉，錄於 K. R. van Kooij 及 H. van der Veere 編，《Function and Meaning in Buddhist Art》，格羅寧根，1995年，頁149-156。在敦煌，瑞像繪畫也得傳承。 龍門與七寶臺造像的寶冠形式差異甚大，相比一下，本品之寶冠較為寫實，易於辨認其珠寶細節，如圓形、方形切割寶石，珍珠鑲邊，正面綴大片錘鍱金屬飾牌，正中鑲嵌碩大寶珠，二側飛天相捧，如此構圖幾似背光，此處鑲於佛頂，燿燿焰光，普照四方。如此珠寶紋飾設計，與西安李靜訓墓出土一件項鍊相近，紀年608年，展出於《China. Dawn of a Golden Age》，前述出處，編號187。 寶冠佛之形象指徵，學術界甚多討論。或與世尊之悉達多太子身分無關，而更屬密宗佛教範疇。佛教符號中，寶冠意指最高智慧與成就，佛陀加冕，意味者成為世界與宇宙之統治者，一如印度宗教中的「轉輪聖王」。在其他亞洲文化中，寶冠的重要性更趨複雜，如前述龍門造像，於中國文化中，廣視為大日如來密宗相。 此尊佛首之面容描寫風格，特殊罕見，石雕類例幾無，唯二件年代相近的夾杼乾漆頭像可供類比，其一佛首出自坂本五郎舊藏，展出於《開館特別出品「精品選集」》，九州國立博物館，福岡，2005年，編號30，2013年10月8日售於香港蘇富比，編號120（圖二）；還有一件日本私人珍藏菩薩首，2017年4月7日售於香港蘇富比，編號3015。連同本品，三件頭像面容之特徵、風格皆甚相近，前額眉心之間呈三角形，眉若刀裁，雙目、嘴唇及鼻頰溝槽，皆以銳利凹槽框之，宛若雙框輪廓，強調佛容，增添氣勢。此三件頭像，精工妙絕，原應出自唐代國都一帶御用匠人之手。

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有的海外拍卖行会替您安排和协调运输， 您只需要支付相关的运费及保险费（如您需要）即可；有的海外拍卖行会推荐几家长期合作的运输公司， 这些运输公司有着良好的信誉和高质量的工作效率，您大可放心。您只需要提供您的收货地址， 竞得拍品账单。 运输公司会根据您提供的信息给您报价， 您可以在其中选择最优的报价者来承担运输任务。然后就是付款了， 信用卡是最常用的支付手段， 当然还有其他像PayPal，转账等。
6. 进口通关可能出现的关税
国际运送的包裹在进口清关过程中如需支付关税，需由包裹接受人（即买家）自行承担。 征收标准：具体征收标准和额度以海关通知和解释为准。
7. 禁拍拍品
海外拍卖会可能会出现中国法律禁止交易的物品，如枪支、管制刀具、象牙、犀角等；中国买家不得通过本平台参与上述物品的拍卖活动；任何情形下，买家均须对自己的竞拍行为独立承担责任。
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