My system is not decent

Chapter 1511 Genuine Water Moon Avalokitesvara
Behind the gilt-bronze statue of a strong man is a gilt-bronze statue of a heavenly king.

It is also a work imitating the Tang Dynasty, with a height of 15.5 cm.

The Heavenly King is also the guardian deity of Buddhism, and this one is also made of copper and gilt.

This heavenly king wears a golden-winged bird crown, frowning brows and protruding eyes, straight nose and wide mouth, curly beard, and a majestic face.

A cloak is worn on the shoulders, which hangs down naturally behind the body, and a soft armor is tightly tied around the waist.

Holding the vajra in the left hand, the right arm is bent to the chest, the five fingers are stretched flat, and the wrist is decorated with a hoop.

He wears long trousers and knots at the ankles, and wears soft boots on his feet, stepping on evil spirits under his feet.

The overall shape is strong and powerful, heroic and burly.

If this kind of work has a little background or a little influence in the industry, if you send a bronze statue of this level to the auction house, as long as it is not the top few big auction houses, it should be sold at a high price.

This kind of craftsmanship has reached the pinnacle, the level of confusing the real with the fake.

Only when the society is extremely developed, people live and work in peace and contentment, have nothing to do when they are idle, and have nothing to do when they are full, can this skill be carried forward.

And the Song Dynasty was precisely such a period.

The standard of living in the Song Dynasty was very high, so the culture and art were very developed, and the sculptures were very powerful and realistic.

It is even better than Western sculpture, more concise and general, more flavorful, and more spiritual.

From this point, we can get a glimpse of the style of Song Dynasty sculpture from the handed down Song Dynasty Arhat statues.

In the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, due to the developed commodity economy and successive years of wars, copper was a very scarce material.

During this period, especially in the Jin Dynasty, pots, bowls, ladles, and spoons were all made of iron if they could be used with iron, and porcelain if they could be used with porcelain. Each family could only have one bronze mirror.

Therefore, Buddha statues and the like are not allowed to be made of copper, which prompted a large number of Buddha statues of various materials such as wood carvings, clay sculptures, and porcelain sculptures.

In particular, large-scale wood carvings emerged as the times require. These wood carvings are tall, generally one or two meters long, and are often carved from a whole piece of wood.

For example, the more famous Shuiyue Guanyin in the Song Dynasty is one of the classics.

If the dozens of wooden statues in front of us are all authentic, they must have a history of at least 1000 years.

These Water Moon Avalokitesvara are definitely outstanding examples of Buddhist sculptures in the Song Dynasty.

Because wood at that time had replaced stone as the most commonly used medium.

These Guanyin statues, depending on the circumstances, probably once sat on a rocky pedestal.

They are supposed to be surrounded by richly illustrated murals and gilded statues on the altars of Buddhist monasteries.

This artistic form of fusion of temple architecture, painting, and sculpture has reached a new height in the history of Buddhist art in my country.

"Huh? That's not right!"

While watching, Chen Wenzhe spread his thoughts, and soon he felt that something was wrong.

The other statues here did not give him such a strange feeling.

Taking a few steps back, he looked at the Shuiyue Guanyin in front of him again.

It is made of wood, and it seems to be well preserved, so the traces of natural weathering are not too serious.

However, it is also an antique with a history of thousands of years, so there are all the signs of aging that should be there.

This is the real thing, Chen Wenzhe suddenly came to his senses.

He accidentally saw their origin, which should come from a large-scale monastery.

Therefore, these Water Moon Avalokitesvara originally had bases.

Although he didn't have the ability to use backtracking, what he should see still came to mind involuntarily.

Chen Wenzhe is very meticulous, he really did not expect that among the Buddha statues that he thought were all fakes, there are actually a few genuine ones.

A total of four wooden Shuiyue Guanyin statues are all authentic.

Just the value of these four Avalokitesvara statues should be able to cover all of Li Jinli's losses.

Shuiyue Guanyin Bodhisattva is the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and his Chinese name is Shuiyue Guanyin.

This refers to his posture, sitting in the water contemplating the reflection of the moon (Shuiyue), and his nature, attuned to the voice of the world (Guanyin).

Avalokiteshvara has long been a central focus of belief in East Asia.

This yidam vowed to liberate all beings in the universe from pain and suffering, thus delaying his enlightenment to become a Buddha.

People from all walks of life seek help from him not only because of his great compassion and ability to save believers, but also because he is considered to be more approachable than the Buddha.

These 1000-year-old Guanyin statues are outstanding representatives of wooden Buddhist sculptures from the Song and Yuan Dynasties (960-1368) in my country.

These Water Moon Guanyin statues all amazed Chen Wenzhe with their delicate carvings and lifelike appearance.

One sits in the "imperial seat" posture, with his right hand bent and knees, which is a typical "Shuiyue Guanyin".

He is thought to reside on an isolated island called Potalaka in the mythical South Sea, where he sits gazing at the moon's reflection in the water.

Reflection refers to the Buddhist idea that everything around us is ephemeral and illusory, and Avalokitesvara has the ability to hear all the suffering in the world.

Here, Guanyin wears flowing clothes with crossed belts, scarves and necklaces.

He put one hand on his lap and raised the other in a gift-giving gesture.

Exhibiting confident calm, the deity fluently expresses his compassion for human suffering and effectively soothes the souls of his devotees.

Among his 33 forms of expression, Guanyin in the form of water and moon is one of the most frequently expressed forms by Chinese artists.

His benevolence and gentle appearance make Guanyin one of the most popular deities in our country.

Among the woodcarving Buddha statues in the Song and Jin Dynasties, the most common image is this image of Water Moon Guanyin, which is in a leisurely sitting posture for games.

Also, the image of Guanyin in this form only appeared in the late Tang Dynasty around 900 AD.

It was particularly popular in the Song Dynasty and continued until the Ming Dynasty.

Since woodcarvings are easy to imitate, there are many imitations of large-scale woodcarvings from the Song Dynasty today.

In fact, most of these counterfeit products were imitated in Dongguan, Guangdong Province.

There is an antique shop over there that sells this kind of wood carvings, which can be faked.

Such a work can only be judged by "looking forward" when appraising it.

Of course, most people like to say "open your face and take a look at it".

It is difficult to explain in detail the grasp of "opening the face", but in fact this is a key point of focus.

The judgment of artworks largely depends on its own artistic heritage.

It is often possible to tell the authenticity of an object at a glance, relying on artistic experience.

Just like Chen Wenzhe just now, he already had this intuition.

Especially when it comes to sculpting open faces, he himself is a master, so it is naturally easy to identify human figures from this aspect.

Naturally, there are not only four Shuiyue Guanyin statues here, so the other works are naturally modern imitations.

For example, several works of the Liao Dynasty, although the imitations here are fine imitations, but at this point, it is a bit taken for granted.

(End of this chapter)