菩薩半跏像ぼさつはんかぞう

  • 奉先寺遺跡出土
  • 唐時代
  • 石灰石
  • H-90.5
  • 所蔵
    龍門石窟研究所蔵

石灰石/奉先寺遺跡出土 唐時代/総高87.5 cm 像高57.0 cm/
龍門石窟研究所蔵
本来台座から頭頂まで一材から彫られていたが、首と腰の所で欠けた状態で発掘された。像は正面に水瓶を表した髪飾りを着けた大きな宝髻を結い、右手を下げて右足の膝の上に伏せ、左足を半跏し、右足を踏み下げて、円柱形の敷茄子と複式蓮弁の反花、円形の框をもった蓮華座上に坐っている。左手を肩先から失い、右の足先を失っているが、反花の右足下から突起が出ていることからすれば、元来はここから伸びた茎に咲いた蓮華が足先を支えていたと推定される。肉付きの良いふくよかな頬と小さな顎をもつ丸顔には、初々しさとともに威厳を湛えており、腰の細い見事なプロポーションを有する伸びやかな姿態が、緊張感のある大きな空間を抱いている。台座に懸かっている下半身にまとう薄い裳の表現は、自然で、衣文もよく整理されて美しく、写実性と理想的な表現が見事に融合している。なお、この像と手足の動きを正反対とする同種の像が発見されており(91頁、参考図版XV)、元来一対のものと推定される。おそらくは則天武后期の終わり頃、8世紀初頭の制作であろう。

Catalogue Entry

Limestone/ Excavated from the Fengxiansi Temple Site, Tang dynasty/
Overall H. 87.5 cm; Fig. H. 57.0 cm/ Longmen Caves Research Institute
Originally this figure, from top of head to bottom of base, was carved from a single block of stone, but it had a break across its neck and waist when it was excavated. The head is topped with a large hair topknot decorated on the front with a vase-shaped ornament. The right hand is lowered and rests face-down on the knee. The left leg is bent with foot resting on the pedestal, while the right leg is pendent. The figure sits on a lotus pedestal fitted with a cylindrical pedestal pillar, multi-petaled lower lotus blossom level, and round pedestal frame. The left arm is missing from the shoulder down, and the right foot is also missing. Judging from the protrusion on the lower lotus blossom level of the pedestal beneath the right leg, it can be surmised that originally a lotus stem would have protruded from the pedestal at that point and the figure's right foot would have rested on the blossom end of that stem. The round face has plump cheeks and chin, and overall is filled with a sense of innocence combined with dignity. The body lines flow in splendid proportions from the narrow waist, and the overall figural posture gives a sense of a large, energized space. The thin skirt-like garment wrapped around the image's lower body drapes over the front of the pedestal in a beautifully natural-feeling, though well-ordered, depiction of drapery flow. Overall the figure is a splendid fusion of realism and idealized expression. Another image of the same iconography, but with arm and leg positions reversed, has been discovered (see p. 91, Figure XV), and it is surmised that the two images originally formed a pair. This sculpture was probably carved around the end of the Dowager Empress Wu period, at the beginning of the 8th century.