figure BM-1908-0725.2

Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1416-1439 (about)
Materials:bronze
Technique:painted
Subjects:arms/armour dragon deity
Dimensions:Height: 133 centimetres

Description:
Seated bearded figure of Zhenwu with long hair and armour breast plate. Robes with painted decoration of dragons. Made of bronze with painted decoration. First two fingers of left hand extended.
IMG


Comments:Zhenwu 真武This is one of the largest surviving bronze figures of Zhenwu (the Perfected Warrior, Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven, Primal Sage and Benevolent Majesty). Underneath his robe, he wears armour, with a dragon on both his breast plate and bejewelled belt. He has bare feet and long flowing hair. Zhenwu was the object of a state cult as protector of the Ming dynasty. Domestic peace and international security were the primary concerns of the early Ming emperors. The Yongle emperor attributed his success in the civil war to Zhenwu. During the Yongle reign, there were miraculous sightings of the god at Mount Wudang in north-western Hubei province, which was Zhenwu’s sacred peak, and these visions were recorded in paintings and Daoist texts. These sightings were regarded as confirming Yongle’s legitimacy as ruler. Zhenwu’s worship was not confined to the court but was widespread among commoners.From 1412 onwards, the Yongle emperor commissioned a major series of temples and shrines to be built on the summits of the highest peaks in the Mount Wudang area, in honour of Zhenwu and as a blessing for his mother and his father, the Hongwu emperor, who was the founder of the Ming dynasty. At the top of Mount Wudang, the Yongle emperor built Zijincheng (Purple Forbidden City), which had the same name as the Forbidden City in Beijing, the construction of which began in the same year. In 1416, he installed an image of Zhenwu in the Jindian (Golden Hall) in the Taihegong (Palace of Supreme Harmony) on Mount Wudang, which is similar in scale and appearance to this figure. The method of depicting the armour beneath the robe is also very similar to a much smaller gilded bronze figure dated by inscription to 1439 and now in the Art Institute of Chicago. Images of Zhenwu in the early Ming may have been modelled on the Yongle emperor himself.Bronze with traces of paint, lacquer and gildingChinaAbout 1416-1439Height 133 cm British Museum, Donated by Messrs. Yamanaka, BM 1908.07-25.2Jessica Harrison-Hall 2014 Little 2000Zhenwu, Supreme Emperor of the Dark HeavenMing Dynasty, 15th/16th centuryBronze with traces of pigmentsH. 133 cmThe British Museum, London, Given by Messrs. Yamanaka (1908.7-25.2)One of the largest known Ming bronze sculptures of Zhenwu outside of China, this work presents the orthodox image of the Perfect Warrior. Zhenwu sits in a dignified posture befitting his status as a celestial emperor, reflecting the title he received in 1304: Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven, Primal Sage, and Benevolent Majesty (Xuantian yuansheng renwei shangdi). The god’s long hair is combed straight back and falls to his waist. He wears armor under his robe, with a dragon emblazoned on his breastplate, His feet are bare. He forms a sacred gesture with the two front fingers of his left, while his right hand rests in his lap. His eyes were originally inlaid. The armor and robe reveal traces of lacquer and gilding; elsewhere there are traces of pigment on the surface. Zhenwu’s robe is decorated in front with a five-clawed dragon; the hem is decorated with clouds in low relief.A similar but larger bronze sculpture, dated to the twenty-second year of the Chenghua reign (1486), is the central icon of worship in the Yanqing Guan, the primary Taoist temple in Kaifeng, Henan province. In its overall appearance, the British Museum sculpture also resembles smaller-scale images from the fifteenth century in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg (dated 1424), and The Art Institute of Chicago (dated 1439; cat. no. 103). – S.L.