A YELLOW SILK TWILL DAMASK 'AVALOKITESHVARA' PANEL 15th centuryA YELLOW SILK TWILL DAMASK 'AVALOKITESHVARA' PANEL15th century The panel finely woven in yellow silk to depict Avalokitesvara the four-armed Shadakshari Lokeshvara, with the inner arms in anjali mudra, seated on an elaborate throne on top of a large lotus, set against a ground with clusters of floral sprays. 111.8cm x 105.5cm (44in x 41 1/2in).十五世紀 黃地暗花緞織四臂觀世音坐像Shadakshari Lokeshvara is the Bodhisattva of Compassion (Avalokiteshvara) in his role as the Lord of the Six Realms of existence (hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, demigods, and gods). Large panels of this quality and type are extremely rare, compare with a closely related early 15th century red silk twill damask 'Avalokiteshvara' hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, New York. The bodhisattva personifies the well-known Sanskrit invocation om mani padme hum, or "hail to the jewel in the lotus," which is found at the top of the hanging beneath the seed syllable hrih, thought to contain the essence of the bodhisattva, further inscribed at the bottom with a Tibetan-language invocation to the goddess Mahashri. With these attributions often found in the art of the Yongle period, the museum dated the piece to early 15th century, see James C.Y. Watt and Denise Patry Leidy, ed., Defining Yongle: Imperial Art in Early Fifteenth-Century China, New York, 2005, pp.83-84, pl.33. The present form of the four-armed bodhisattva, style of the mandorla and the stand derived from Tibetan Buddhism were all propagated through gilt-bronze sculptures of the Yongle and Xuande periods, such as a related Yongle-marked Sakyamuni in the British Museum, illustrated by Craig Clunas and Jessica Harrison-Hall, eds., Ming: 50 Years That Changed China, London, 2014, pl.195.Impeccably woven in a single colour of yellow of the present panel, the panel's damask weave structure and silk fibre impart a certain luminosity to the bodhisattva, lotus in the background, and make the picture somewhat elusive. See a similarly woven yellow silk twill damask 'dragon' robe excavated from an early Ming dynasty tomb, now in the Shandong Museum; and an early Ming dynasty yellow silk twill damask with similar clusters of floral sprays in the National Folk Museum of Korea, illustrated in ibid., pls.53-54.These Ming dynasty repertoires began to be reproduced in the Qing dynasty on kesi and tangkas with distinctive new styles of the bodhisattva's face and decorative patterns, see a 18th century kesi 'Avalokiteshvara' tangka in the Qing Court Collection accompanied by Qianlong seal marks, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Tangka-Buddhist Painting of Tibet, Hong Kong, 2003, p.257, no.236. See also a Qing dynasty 'Avalokiteshvara' embroidery panel in the National Palace Museum accompanied by seal marks of Qianlong and Xuantong, illustrated in The Khubilghan: The Incarnated Lamas of the Qing Dynasty and Related Artifacts, Taipei, 2020, pp.106-107.觀音菩薩是傳入藏地最早的佛教神衹，而其中「六字觀音」（四臂觀音）是藏文史料中見存最早的觀音化身像之一，代表六字真言的法力，是修持者在修持六字真言咒法時，觀想的一種觀音造型。四臂另代表四種佛行—息、增、懷、誅。緞上觀音面相清秀，頭戴五葉寳冠，雙耳垂璫，身著天衣綢裙，佩戴瓔珞釧環，肩披帛帶。四臂，胸前雙手合十，另兩手分別持珠、拈花，結跏趺坐於須彌座及蓮花寶座上，後有三層紋飾組成的背光，留白處蓮花散落，畫面簡潔又不失莊重。暗花緞又稱正反緞，是經緞紋地，緯緞紋花，利用緞紋組織的經緯綫光澤不同而顯花，從而達到正反花、地顔色相同而組織不同的效果。此緞織造細密，綫條規整流暢，花紋清晰，是明代暗花緞織物中的珍品。山東博物館藏明早期魯荒王朱檀墓出土一件黃地織錦龍袍，其暗花工藝與本件頗似；韓國民俗博物館藏一件明早期黃地織錦番蓮紋袍，其番蓮紋及暗花工藝與本件亦頗類似，見柯律格及Jessica Harrion-Hall編，《Ming: 50 Years That Changed China》，倫敦，2014年，圖版53及54。紐約大都會博物館藏一件十五世紀早期紅地暗花緞織四臂觀世音坐像，整體構圖與此拍品非常接近。上織兩行梵文母字：頂上織一字「Dharma」（意「法」）；第二行織六字真言，由左至右為「唵嘛呢叭咪吽」；底部織有頭體藏文禱告文：「晝吉祥，夜吉祥，晝夜恆吉祥，依靠三寶得吉祥」。舘方認為此類銘文主要出現在永樂時期唐卡，見屈志仁及 Denise Patry Leidy著，《 Defining Yongle: Imperial Art in Early Fifteenth-Century China》，紐約，2005年，頁83–84，圖33。此類四臂觀音之開臉、台座及背光皆有明顯永宣時期風格，此風格在金銅造像上亦有體現，參考大英博物館藏一件明永樂銅鎏金釋迦牟尼像，其衣衫折疊形態、背光花紋及台座花紋與本件所織紋樣一脈相承，見前書《Ming》，圖版195。清代以此為本製作緙絲及刺繡唐卡，然而其開臉及紋飾細節已有鮮明時代風格，非復永宣舊貌，可參考一件清宮舊藏十八世紀緙絲四臂觀世音菩薩唐卡，見《故宮博物院藏文物珍品大系：藏傳佛教唐卡，香港，2003年，頁257，編號236。畫心上方鈐有「乾隆鑒賞」、「宣統御覽之寶」、「太上皇帝之寶」及「祕殿珠林」諸印；另可比較台北故宮藏清代刺繡四臂觀音像，亦鈐有乾隆及宣統諸印，見宋兆霖，《呼畢勒罕—清代活佛文物大展》，臺北，2020年，頁106-107。