A MAGNIFICENT GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA

Yongle incised six-character mark and of the period

Footnotes

明永樂 銅鎏金釋迦牟尼佛坐像
「大明永樂年施」款

Provenance: Henrik Valdemar Jacobsen (1887-1955), Harbin, China and Hellerup, Denmark, and thence by descent

來源：雅國先 (1887-1955)，曾居中國哈爾濱和丹麥赫勒烏浦，並由後人保存迄今

Henrik Valdemar Jacobsen served as the Consul of Denmark in Harbin, China 1919-1930. He was in Harbin in 1911 with the Danish East Asiatic Company (宝隆洋行), and was then appointed its manager, North East China, from 1917-1930, developing the company's trade in soy beans. On his return to Copenhagen, Denmark, he served as Managing Director from 1932-1952.

This important gilt-bronze figure of Buddha, Yongle mark and period, was collected by Jacobsen during his work in China, amongst other objects which adorned his family home in Harbin and later in Hellerup, Denmark as can be seen in an old family photograph.

The present magnificent gilt-bronze figure of Shakyamuni Buddha is amongst the very finest ever made during the Yongle period. For nearly a century it has remained with the same Danish family, and it is offered here for the first time since it left China prior to 1932.

Emperors during the early Ming dynasty lavishly patronised Buddhism. The Hongwu emperor was a monk between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four, and the Yongle and Xuande emperors continued to promote Tibetan Buddhism, also as means of extending their power and sphere of influence. The Yongle emperor welcomed Tibetan guests with great ceremony and gifts, and sent Imperial delegations to Tibet as early as 1403. In doing so he was recalling Kublai Khan's famous patron-priest relationship with his Tibetan Imperial Preceptor ʼPhags-pa (1235-1280), casting himself in the role of the Mongol Khan's spiritual heir and inheritor of Mongol political hegemony. Artisans from Tibet are believed to have remained in Beijing after the fall of the Yuan dynasty and continued to serve in the Ming Imperial Workshops, with frequent exchanges of sculptures and gifts between the Ming Court and Tibetan hierarchs and monasteries.

Strong influence was exerted by the monk Daoyan (Yao Guangxiao) (1335-1418), who met Prince Yan, the future Yongle emperor, at the funeral of his mother the empress in Nanjing, and then travelled with him to his fiefdom in Beijing. Later he became a key military, political and religious adviser to the future Yongle emperor. Daoyan's influence continued in assisting Prince Yan to capture the throne from the Jianwen emperor in 1402. Therefore, the receipt of favourable omens and portents from Tibetan lamas and their blessings, served to strengthen the legitimacy of the Ming rule and its Mandate from Heaven, and particularly that of the Yongle emperor.

The genius of Yongle period Buddhist sculpture is its ability to codify Imperial power, artistic creativity and religious authority within a single work of art. In the present lot these three elements exist on a scale that is both personal and intimate.

The iconographic form of Shakyamuni Buddha represented here is rare among the corpus of surviving Yongle sculpture. Monumental examples include a complete shrine in the collection of the British Museum, published by W.Zwalf, ed., Buddhism: Art and Faith, London, 1985, no.305, (59cm) and another from the Speelman collection, which was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7 October 2006, lot 808 (72.5cm). Such works were part of a large-scale project of monastic patronage by the Yongle emperor, which included the construction, between 1412 and 1418, of the gilt bronze Golden Hall in the Palace of Supreme Harmony on Mount Wudang. The present example represents the historical Shakyamuni Buddha and commemorates the defeat of Mara at Bodhgaya, one of the 'Eight Great Places' of Buddhist pilgrimage.

A small number of more intimately conceived pieces, range between approximately 15 and 28cm in height, perfectly encapsulating the essence of the monumental works. Every naturalistic detail has been painstakingly cast from the drape of the cloth to the poise of the fingers, the quintessential broad shoulders, powerful torsos, long legs and curly hair gathered in a pointed topknot.

Recorded examples of similar-sized gilt bronze figures of Shakyamuni Buddha, Yongle mark and period are exceptionally rare and include the following: the first, published by U.von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, vol.II, pl.358A, (19.4cm); the second is illustrated by U.von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, pl.146D (19cm) and was sold by Christie's London, 6 May 1975, lot 32; the third figure was sold by Christie's New York, 21 March 2001, lot 85 (19.7cm high); the fourth figure from the collection of Tuyet Nguyet and Stephen Markbreiter, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7 October 2010, lot 2142 (21.2cm high); and the fifth and most recent example, is a figure of Shakyamuni Buddha, which was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong on 3 October 2017, lot 3143 (20.2cm high). For another very similar example but with slightly different lotus lappets, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Splendors from The Yongle and Xuande Reigns of China's Ming Dynasty: Selected Artefacts, Beijing, 2010, p.244, no.118 (22cm high).

早在1911年，雅國先就随着丹麦跨国公司宝隆洋行的业务扩展来到了哈爾濱。他在1917-1930年间被委任为該洋行的中国东北地区经理，主力拓展公司的大豆业务，並在1919-1930年間兼任丹麥駐哈爾濱領事。在回到哥本哈根後，他繼續在寶隆洋行工作並在1932至1952年間出任行政總裁。
這尊珍罕永樂款銅鎏金佛像即為雅國先在中國時所入藏。同時進入其收藏的還有在其家庭老照片中可見，裝點於他在哈爾濱及丹麥赫勒烏浦家中各處的精美器物。
此像所刻畫者為佛陀釋迦牟尼，為永樂年製傳世佛像中之佼佼者。在過去近一世紀內，該像一直為雅國先家族所珍藏。此次現身拍場，實為其自1932年前離開中國後之首次亮相。
明初皇帝均大興佛教，供養不輟。洪武皇帝本人在19歲至24歲間曾出家侍佛，而永樂和宣德二帝則扶持藏傳佛教，並以此作為擴展帝國勢力及影響力的手段之一。永樂帝早在1403年就已遣使入藏，並數次迎請藏僧入朝說法且對其賞賜無數。如此一來，他便可效仿忽必烈以法王八思巴（1235-1280）為帝師之舉，將自己塑造成蒙古諸汗的精神傳人及元蒙政權理所當然的繼承者了。而從明皇室與藏區政教首領及寺廟之間頻繁的造像及禮物交換來看，相信的確有不少來自西藏的工匠在元代覆亡後依然留在北京，並繼續在明代的御作坊中工作。
在明初的政治局勢中，僧人道衍（姚廣孝，1335-1418）也是舉足輕重的人物之一。他在高皇后的葬儀法事上與其子燕王（即後來的永樂帝朱棣）相識並相談甚歡，後更隨後者入燕，成為朱棣在軍事、政治和宗教上的重要幕僚。1402年時，道衍亦參與到靖難之變中，助燕王從建文帝手中篡得帝位。因此，來自藏傳佛教高僧的預言及祝禱一直是明代統治合法性及其「天命所歸」的重要論述基礎，尤其是對永樂帝而言。
永樂年間佛教造像的精華之處，尤在於其融皇權之尊貴、藝術的創造性，及宗教之威嚴於一體。在本拍品上，這三種元素亦緊密結合，表露無遺。
本拍品上所呈現之釋迦牟尼形象在傳世永樂造像中十分罕見。一些較大型的例子可見於大英博物館所藏的一座完整的佛龕，見W.Zwalf所編Buddhism: Art and Faith，倫敦，1985年，編號305（59cm），以及2006年10月7日香港蘇富比以編號808售出的一件原Speelman藏佛像（72.5cm）。這類造像多用於永樂帝大興土木所建造的佛寺中，其中一所即為建於1412至1418年間的武當山太和宮銅鎏金金殿。而本拍品所刻畫的則為釋迦牟尼佛在佛教八大聖地之一菩提伽耶（Bodhgaya）結觸地印斥退摩羅（Mara）群魔，終證悟成道之情境。
如本拍品一般精巧，高度在15至28釐米之間的作品為數不多，但它們蘊含的細節及表現的氣韻卻與大型作品不遑多讓。從垂墜衣紋到精細的手部姿態，從典型的寬闊肩部到健美的身軀，還有修長雙腿以及捲髮頂髻，所有寫實細節均由精妙鑄工一一呈現。
目前可見與本拍品尺寸相類之永樂款鎏金釋迦牟尼像且有著錄者僅有數例。其一收錄於U. von Schroeder著Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet （西藏佛教雕塑），香港，2001，卷二，圖版358A（高19.4 cm）。其二可見於U. von Schroeder著Indo-Tibetan Bronzes（印度西藏青銅器），香港，1981年，圖版146D（高19 cm）。該像於1975年5月6日以編號32為倫敦佳士得售出。其三則為紐約佳士得於2002年3月21日所售，編號85（高19.7 cm）。其四為雪月舊藏（Collection of Tuyet Nguyet and Stephen Markbreiter），於2010年10月7日為香港蘇富比所售，編號2141（高21.2 cm）。第五例，亦即最近拍場可見的一例，為香港蘇富比於2017年10月3日售出的明永樂鎏金銅釋迦牟尼佛坐像（高20.2 cm），編號3143。北京故宮博物院亦藏有一例（高22 cm），雖蓮座稍有不同但亦可資比對，見《明永樂宣德文物圖典》，北京，2010年，頁244，編號118。