74. 74W IMPORTANTE ET RARE STATUE DE DIVINITÉ DAOISTE EN BOIS Song (960-1279) AN IMPORTANT AND RARE LARGE WOOD FIGURE OF A DAOIST DEITY Song (960-1279) Seated facing forward, with her head slightly leaning to the left side, her feet firmly on the ground, hands clasped but hidden in the long sleeves of her robe, wearing a tunic with a stiff inner collar under a feather-bordered short cape, her layered robe falling in ample folds over her arms and cascading over her legs and feet, revealing the tips of her pointed shoes, tied around the chest with a belt and around her upper arms with wide bejewelled armbands, a necklace around her neck, the full oval face with a small cusped mouth and nose, with small slanted eyes below arched brows, framed by large pendulous earlobes, her hair neatly braided and drawn up into a tall chignon framed by an elaborate diadem/headdress consisting of rows of overlapping feathers or leaves, the back of the figure with a large rectangular opening, extensive traces of red, green, white and gold pigments, wood stand. 111cm (43 3/4in) high. (2). 宋 木雕彩繪道教神仙坐像 Provenance: Property of a distinguished German private collector, acquired in Berlin in the 1950s, thence in the family by descent The result of Ciram Radiocarbon Dating test no. 0423-OA-416R (P1 and P2) (4 May 2023) is consistent with the dating of this lot. 來源: 德國私人收藏，1950年代於柏林獲得，並由後人保存迄今 法國Ciram實驗室碳-14結果，測試編號0423-OA-416R(樣本P1和P2，2023年5月4日）顯示本拍品年份斷代相符 This charming figure is as intriguing as it is rare. It was acquired in Berlin in the 1950s and was reputedly dated to the Liao dynasty (901-1125). The results of a recent carbon-14 test have secured a more firm dating to the 11th/early 12th century. Conforming with the high-fashion style popular during the Liao and Song dynasties, the lady is dressed wearing the sumptuous trappings of a gentle woman. Her robe is ample and colourful, the many layers of her dress, tunic and shawl generously draped across her shoulders, arms, and legs, enveloping the body, and gathering around her feet. The outer garment shows traces of painted flower sprays, her tunic and collar a vibrant red colour, the robe over her legs a muted green. Representations of similarly clad elegant ladies feature prominently in murals adorning the walls of important tombs and temples of the Five Dynasties (907-960), Liao (907-1125) and Song (960-1125) periods. Compare, for example, the groups of ladies wearing the same style of collared tunic over long robes tied with colourful sashes on the sides, discovered on the walls of a Liao tomb in Baoshan, Inner Mongolia, illustrated in Wu Hong and Lin Qingquan, Baoshan Liao mu: cailiao yu keshi, Beijing, 2013, p.196, figs.59-61. Similarly, the largest tomb of the Zhang family compound unearthed in Baisha, Henan, illustrates the ladies of the house engaged in various activities, dressed in colourful robes that resemble that of the current seated figure, see Su Bai, Baisha Song mu, Beijing, 1957, col.pl.17. One feature that sets this figure apart from the elegant ladies immortalized in murals of the Liao and Song period, is the precious jewellery she displays. It comprises a large necklace suspending circular beads and earrings which are now lost. Her elaborate headdress which bears extensive traces of gold resembles a crown and is supported on a wide band set with prominent foliate-shaped ornaments repeated on the armbands that fasten her sleeves. It is the very distinctive jewellery of this figure that allows us to attribute it more firmly to the Northern Song dynasty. Foliate-shaped ornaments made in silver very much like those on her headdress and armbands were found in a silver hoard in Yongjia, Zhejiang province, published in Yang Zhishui, Shehua zhise: Song Yuan Ming jin yin yanjiu, vol. 1 Song Yuan jin yin shoushi, Beijing, 2011, pp.39-40, fig.1-10. A similar motif also appears on a band-shaped hairpin from the same hoard, ibid., p.51, figs.1-15:1 and 2. Moreover, the large cloud-shaped plaque around her neck closely resembles a silver ornamental plaque of the same shape discovered in another Northern Song silver hoard unearthed in Xingzi Xian, Jiangxi, ibid., pp.180-183, fig.1-55:1. The inspiration behind her very special jewellery may lie in Buddhist sculptures and paintings of the same period. Like this figure of a gentle lady, Bodhisattvas were similarly adorned with bejewelled necklaces, armbands and crowns, reflecting their elevated status and noble origins. Compare, for example, the manifold representations of bodhisattvas featured on the walls of the Daxiongbaodian Hall in Kaihua Monastery, built between 1076 and 1096, near Taiyuan, Shanxi, each dressed in a dazzling array of jewellery, see Kaihua si Song dai bihua, Beijing, 1983, col.pls.2 and 3. Tombs and temples of the Liao and Song provide us with more visual clues as to who this seated figure might be. Among the myriad of female figures that appear on the walls of important tombs and temples of the tenth to 13th centuries, a small group of female figures stands out. Painted on the wall of an interior chamber in the Liao tomb in Baoshan, Inner Mongolia, is a small figure of a lady descending on a cloud, see Wu Hung and Lin Qingquan, op.cit., p.179, figs.31 and 32. Wearing a similar style of dress in vibrant red with blue borders and adorned with jewellery highlighted in gold, she is wearing a short feathered cape and feather-like sleeves or scarves. Holding a peach in her right hand she is identified as Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West in an inscribed cartouche above her. Like the present wood figure of a seated lady, the Queen Mother of the West is depicted as an aristocratic lady in a manner standardised from the Tang dynasty onward, see Suzanne Cahill, Transcendence and Divine Passion. The Queen Mother of the West in Medieval China, Stanford, 1983, pp.82 and 83. During the Liao and Song, Daoism flourished alongside Buddhism. Numerous Daoist temples and shrines were built where worshippers could congregate and worship. It is a Daoist temple in Northern China that may resolve the puzzle that this figure poses. Located in the centre of the Jinci Temple near Taiyuan in Shanxi province is a large building known as the Sage Mother Hall (shengmu dian). It is dedicated to Shengmu, the Sage Mother, originally a water spirit which was later revered as the Sage mother and first queen of the Zhou dynasty. A large polychrome stucco figure of the seated Sage Mother occupies a central position. She is seated and faces ahead. Her robes are ample, tied high under her chest, she is wearing a bejewelled necklace and an elaborate crown. The forty-three figures of maids that are gathered around her are similarly dressed though without the jewellery. The Shengmu Hall was built between 1023 and 1032 during the Tiansheng reign and may have been sponsored by the Dowager Empress Liu. The dating corresponds loosely with the making of the present figure. The Sage Mother image further corresponds with the image of the Queen Mother of the West represented in the slightly later mural of the Heavenly Court in the Yongle Gong (Palace of Eternal Joy) in southern Shanxi, dated 1325, the most important Daoist temple built in the Jin/Yuan period. Here, in the Hall of Three Purities (Sanqing dian, the largest and most important hall of complex, the Queen Mother of the West is depicted in the same seated position as the Sage Mother, wearing an elegant robe, fluttering scarves, bejewelled necklaces and an elaborate crown. The iconography of the present seated figure of a lady is clearly related to representations of major female figures in the Daoist pantheon. Whether she is a representation of the Queen Mother of the West or represents a secondary Daoist deity requires further research. But this charming and very expressive seated figure is not only a rare example of early Chinese wood sculpture of the Song dynasty, it also belongs to a very small and rare group of surviving artworks that can be identified as Daoist, and offers a glimpse into the multi-faceted visual culture that developed and thrived in China during the Liao, Song and Jin dynasties.