26. RARE STATUETTE DE VAIROCANA EN BOIS LAQUÉ OR Fin de la dynastie Ming/début de la dynastie Qing A RARE LACQUER-GILT WOOD FIGURE OF VAIROCANA Late Ming/early Qing Dynasty Seated in vajrasana on a double lotus base, with both hands in dharma chakra mudra, wearing a fine diaphanous robe covering both shoulders and falling in large regular folds over his lap and legs while leaving his feet bare, his face is with a serene expression, with downcast eyes between arched eyebrows, smiling lips, his hair gathered in tight curls, together with an associated tiered lacquer-gilt wood pedestal. The figure: 36.2cm (14 1/4in) high., the figure and pedestal: 58cm (22 3/4in) high. (2). 明末/清初 漆金木毘盧遮那佛坐像 Provenance: The figure: Formerly in a German collection. The pedestal: Collection of Eduard von Grützner (1846-1925) Hugo Helbing, Munich, 4 June 1930, lot 712 Collection of Heinrich Vetter (1910-2003), Mannheim Lempertz, Cologne, 4 July 2003, lot 165 來源： 佛像：德國舊藏 底座：Eduard von Grützner（1846-1925）收藏 Hugo Helbing拍賣行，慕尼黑，1930年6月4日，編號712 曼海姆Heinrich Vetter（1910-2003）珍藏 倫佩茨拍賣行，科隆，2003年7月4日，編號165 Stylistically, the present work can be related to a corpus of Buddhist gilt-lacquer sculpture commissioned during the reigns of the Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors at the Buddhist site of Rehol, near Chengde in Hebei province. As the Mongols were fervent followers of Tibetan-style Buddhism, Kangxi ordered the construction of various Tibetan-style Buddhist temples ordered around the axis of Qingchui. Under the reign of his grandson, the Qianlong Emperor, the site was expanded massively, with the layout of the site mirroring the Buddhist cosmology of a mandala. The central focus of worship for many of these temples were large gilt-lacquered wood sculptures, including the 22-meter-high figure of Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara at the Puning Temple. Most similar to the present work are three massive figures of Buddhas located in the Zongyin Hall, constructed in 1766, see Buddhist Art from Rehol: Tibetan Buddhist Images and Ritual Objects from the Qing Dynasty Summer Palace at Chengde, Taipei, 1999, p.29. Characteristic of many of these lacquered sculptures was the deeply colored gilding, almost in imitation of patinated gilt-bronze, applied over thick red or black lacquer. A smaller dry lacquer figure of related modelling in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York is published by Alan Priest, Chinese Sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1944, pl. CVVVI, with an inscribed paper label scroll contained in an interior cavity dating to the 9th year of the Yongle reign, corresponding to 1411.