4th Nov, 2022 13:00
Fine Netsuke & Sagemono
160
GUY SHAW: BAKU MADONNA AND CHILD
Sold for €4,420
including Buyer's Premium
By Guy Shaw (1951-2003), signed with the artist's initial GS
England, c. 1998
The two mythological creatures borne from flames and huddled together in a loving embrace, the young baku’s trunk ‘feeling’ underneath the adult’s ear and the adult’s trunk coiling around the young, holding it close. Finely carved in lightly stained boxwood, the eyes inlaid in amber, the himotoshi between the flames, and signed underneath within a gold-inlaid plaque GS.
The late Guy Shaw writes on this subject in the Netsuke Kenkyukai Study Journal, vol. 10, no.1 (Spring 1993), p. 13: “In Baku Madonna and Child I portray another private scene of the mythological baku – that of a baku mother cuddling her child. Both mother and child have been carved in an economical style for a specific reason. The problem I set myself was to capture a feeling of great tenderness and compassion between the two while at the same time expressing the essentially aggressive nature of this mythological creature. After all, baku prey upon the most terrifying of phenomena, our own deepest fears and the horrors that lurk in our subconscious. They are lapped by flames of the spirit world and bathed in the love for each other. The pose reminds me of the carvings of the Madonna and Child, hence the title, a meeting of eastern and western philosophies“.
HEIGHT 5.8 cm
Condition: Excellent condition.
Provenance: Old Viennese private collection, purchased in 1998.
Literature comparison:
A similar netsuke carved from mammoth tusk is illustrated in Netsuke und Sagemono von Meistern aus Japan (1992), no. 119. Another similar netsuke carved from burr yew is illustrated in the Netsuke Kenkyukai Study Journal, vol. 10, no.1 (Spring 1993), p. 13, fig. 9.
#contemporary highlight
By Guy Shaw (1951-2003), signed with the artist's initial GS
England, c. 1998
The two mythological creatures borne from flames and huddled together in a loving embrace, the young baku’s trunk ‘feeling’ underneath the adult’s ear and the adult’s trunk coiling around the young, holding it close. Finely carved in lightly stained boxwood, the eyes inlaid in amber, the himotoshi between the flames, and signed underneath within a gold-inlaid plaque GS.
The late Guy Shaw writes on this subject in the Netsuke Kenkyukai Study Journal, vol. 10, no.1 (Spring 1993), p. 13: “In Baku Madonna and Child I portray another private scene of the mythological baku – that of a baku mother cuddling her child. Both mother and child have been carved in an economical style for a specific reason. The problem I set myself was to capture a feeling of great tenderness and compassion between the two while at the same time expressing the essentially aggressive nature of this mythological creature. After all, baku prey upon the most terrifying of phenomena, our own deepest fears and the horrors that lurk in our subconscious. They are lapped by flames of the spirit world and bathed in the love for each other. The pose reminds me of the carvings of the Madonna and Child, hence the title, a meeting of eastern and western philosophies“.
HEIGHT 5.8 cm
Condition: Excellent condition.
Provenance: Old Viennese private collection, purchased in 1998.
Literature comparison:
A similar netsuke carved from mammoth tusk is illustrated in Netsuke und Sagemono von Meistern aus Japan (1992), no. 119. Another similar netsuke carved from burr yew is illustrated in the Netsuke Kenkyukai Study Journal, vol. 10, no.1 (Spring 1993), p. 13, fig. 9.
#contemporary highlight
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