A LACQUERED COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF ACUOYE GUANYINYUNNAN, DALI KINGDOM, 12TH CENTURY
With remains of gilding in recessed areas.
Himalayan Art Resources item no.16703
45.3 cm (17 3/4 in.) high注脚Remarkably distinct from Han and Tibetan representations of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin), this tall and slender image was central to the rarified character of Buddhism expressed in the 12th-century Dali Kingdom of Yunnan province, China.
 
Exemplary of these Dali-kingdom representations of Guanyin, the bodhisattva is dressed for a hot climate, wearing a fitted sarong knotted at the waist and hips. His torso is bare except for a decorative belt of floral roundels, a torque, and a beaded necklace. Foliate armbands are positioned characteristically high, and he wears a malla (rosary) as a bracelet around his right wrist. One of the most alluring features of such Yunnanese sculptures are the brilliant chains of braided locks descending to each shoulder. They are the crescendo to a stupendous headdress, which presents at its center an effigy of Amitabha Buddha, Guanyin's cosmic progenitor. Facing the viewer, Guanyin smiles with a gentle gaze while he signals with his hands his ability to instruct and grant wishes (vitarka and varada mudras).
 
This Yunnanese image of Avalokiteshvara is called Acuoye Guanyin, named in the earliest of two hand scrolls discussing its origin and purpose. The Nanzhao tuzhuan, dated 898 CE, now in the collection of the Fujii Yurinkan, Kyoto, describes and illustrates how the image was created by an exceptional Indian monk as the tutelary deity of a ruling Yunnanese family who established the Nanzhao Kingdom (738–937), helping to generate their power and fortune. Thus, the image is indelibly linked to statecraft, and "Acuoye" is probably a transliteration of the Sanskrit term ajaya, which means "all victorious" (Leidy & Strahan, Wisdom Embodied, New York, 2010, p.136). A smaller sculpture of Acuoye Guanyin cast in gold, now held in the Yunnan Provincial Museum (ibid., fig.99), probably represents the earliest surviving sculptural example of this image that was replicated by successive generations of ruling families. Meanwhile, such larger images, generally of the present lot's height, and cast in arsenical bronze, are thought to have been produced in the 12th century by the imperial workshops of the Dali Kingdom, which succeeded the Nanzhao Kingdom from 937 to 1253. One example in the San Diego Museum of Art (1941.83) underpins the dating of this group, bearing a dedicatory inscription from the reign of Emperor Duan Zhengxing (1147-72).
 
The worship and appearance of Yunnan's Acuoye Guanyin resembles sculptures of Avalokiteshvara produced by neighboring Southeast Asian states, with which the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms traded. Correlations can be drawn between Acuoye Guanyin's frontal posture, jewelry, costume, and headdress, and earlier or contemporaneous sculpture of the Mon, Pyu, Cham, Srivijaya, and Khmer (Guy, "The Avalokitesvara of Yunnan and Some South East Asian Connections", in Scott & Guy (ed.), South East Asia & China: Art, Interaction & Commerce, Colloquies on Art & Archaeology in Asia No.17, London, 1995, pp.64-83). Moreover, while absent from India, Tibet, and China in the 8th and 9th centuries, the phenomenon of worshipping Avalokiteshvara as the supreme Buddhist deity was widespread in Southeast Asia. Given these connections, sculptures of Acuoye Guanyin underscore the historic importance of Yunnan's position within the nexus of trade and cultural exchange between China and Southeast Asia.
 
There are likely fewer than thirty extant sculptures of Acuoye Guanyin from the Dali Kingdom, most of which are spread throughout international museums. These include examples in the Yunnan Provincial Museum; Dali Bai Nationality Autonomous Prefecture Museum; Sichuan Museum; National Palace Museum, Taipei (000133); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (42.25.28); Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (F1946.10a-b); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1926.266); Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (B60S34); Brooklyn Museum (1995.48); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (M.155-1938); and British Museum, London (1950,0215.1). Among them, the Brooklyn Museum's (1995.48) is most similar to the present lot, sharing its gentler gaze and more pronounced smile.

Provenance
Private French Collection
Carlo Cristi, Milan, 18 June 2006
Collection of Drs. Edmund and Julie Lewis, Chicago


阿嵯耶觀音銅像
雲南，大理國，十二世紀
凹陷處有鎏金殘留。
喜馬拉雅藝術資源網16703號
高45.3釐米（17 3/4英吋）

1,600,000-2,000,000港幣

本尊菩薩像體態雅緻而頎長，呈現雲南大理國十二世紀珍罕的佛教形象，與漢傳及藏傳佛教中的菩薩外觀迥然不同。

作為大理國觀音造像之典範，本尊菩薩身著適宜炎熱氣候的輕薄服飾，一件合身的紗群在腰間挽結，自在輕盈。其上身袒露，僅繫一條刻圓形花朵圖樣之腰帶、一新月形胸飾、以及一條串珠項鍊。葉形臂釧高高佩戴在兩臂上方，右腕帶有一念珠手串。菩薩頭頂結高髻，上有化佛，數條自頂延伸而下髮辮垂於兩肩，為雲南造像中最獨具魅力的部分之一。觀音菩薩面向來者，面含微笑，眼神柔和，一手施安慰印，一手結予願印，象徵其能夠引導眾生得償所願。

這種雲南觀音形像被稱為阿嵯耶觀音。「阿嵯耶 」之名最早見於一部公元898年的《南詔圖傳》手卷，此手卷現收藏於京都藤井有鄰館，當中以文字與圖像記述了觀音之形象如何由一位成就不凡的印度僧侶創造而成，他為開創南詔政權（738-937年）並統治雲南的家族造此觀音作為護法神，以助其掌握權力與財富，令阿嵯耶觀音之淵源與政治統治緊密相連。阿嵯耶或為梵文ajaya之音譯，意為「 無往不勝」(見Leidy與Strahan，《Wisdom Embodied》，紐約，2010年，頁136）。雲南省博物館珍藏著一件形制稍小的阿嵯耶觀音金像（同上，圖99），可能為存世最古老的阿嵯耶觀音像，或為後世統治家族鑄阿嵯耶像之參照。學術界通常認為與本拍品高度相當的大型銅像由大理國（937-1253年）宮廷於十二世紀時製造。聖地亞哥藝術博物館藏有一件帶有大理國皇帝段正興（1147-72年在位）款識之觀音像（編號1941.83），為推斷此類造像之年代提供了確鑿依據。

雲南地區對阿嵯耶觀音之崇拜可能受到比鄰的東南亞國家影響，阿嵯耶觀音之形像同東南亞的觀音菩薩像十分相似。南詔及大理國與東南亞有著頻繁的貿易往來。阿嵯耶觀音之正面姿勢與珠寶、衣物及頭飾等皆與孟族、驃族、撣族、室利佛逝以及高棉帝國所製造的同時期或更早的造像之間關聯頗多（見Guy,〈The Avalokitesvara of Yunnan and Some South East Asian Connections〉，收入Scott與Guy編，《South East Asia & China：Art，Interaction & Commerce，Colloquies on Art & Archaeology in Asia No.17》，倫敦，1995年，頁64-83）。此外，八世紀與九世紀時，將觀音作為至高的佛教神袛加以供奉的現象在東南亞十分普遍，但在印度、西藏與中原地區尚未出現。沿著這些綿長的歷史脈絡，阿嵯耶觀音見證著雲南在中國與東南亞間貿易及文化往來中的重要地位。

現存大理國阿嵯耶觀音像或不足三十尊，其中絕大部分珍藏於世界各地博物館，包括雲南省博物館、大理白族自治州博物館、四川博物院、台北國立故宮博物院（購-銅-000133）、大都會博物館（42.25.28）、弗瑞爾藝廊、舊金山亞洲藝術博物館、布魯克林博物館、倫敦艾爾伯特與維多利亞博物館、大英博物館等等。其中，布魯克林博物館之藏品（編號1995.48）與本拍品最為接近，特別比照其端柔的目光與引人注目的微笑。

來源
法國私人珍藏
Carlo Cristi，米蘭，2006年6月18日
Edmund與Julie Lewis醫生珍藏，芝加哥