A GILT LACQUERED COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF SIMHANADA AVALOKITESHVARA


MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURYHimalayan Art Resources item no.61650 51 cm (20 in.) high
|明朝 十六世纪 銅漆金獅吼觀音像In this form, the Bodhisattva of Perfected Compassion, Avalokiteshvara, can be invoked to cure illness. His iconography is derived from the Mahayana Avatamsaka Sutra. He is depicted in the posture of royal ease and wears an ornate headdress with a seated image of Amitabha Buddha – a reference to Avalokiteshvara as an emanation of the Buddha Amitabha. His right arm rests on the knee while the left hand supports the weight of his body. He rides on a lion that turns upward and gazes at the Bodhisattva attentively. This bronze is a classic representation of Simhanada Avalokitesvara, 'the Lion Voiced Lord', in the Ming Dynasty. A parrot by his shoulder is a reference to popular Ming scripture, "The Tale of the Filial and righteous Parrot", where a parrot accompanies the Bodhisattva to the South Sea. Compare the bronze with the Ming Samantabhadra from the Ningxia Museum, published in Hsing, Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts, Kaohsiung, 2013, p.1412. Also compare another similar example dated to the Chenghua reign (r.1464-1487) illustrated in Spencer, Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Taipei, 1993, p.46, no.16.Provenance Frank Ormond, 2013