A CHINESE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF ZHENWU.

Ming Dynasty, dated 16th year of Chongzhen, 1643, and of the period.

The figure standing with eyes lowered, a third eye in the centre of the forehead, dressed in fine armour, a ribbon looping behind his shoulders and trailing over his bear feet, details highlighted in gilt and green, red and white pigment, the figure supported on a three foot stand which is inscribed Da Ming Chongzhen shiliu nian, 34.5cm H, 4.5kg.

明崇禎十六年 銅鎏金真武大帝像，陰文「大明崇禎拾陸年」款

Zhenwu is an important and distinctive figure in Chinese literature known for his trademark bare feet and unkempt long hair. Various explanations have been put forward for his appearance. In one explanation a fierce battle with demons and resulted in his hair becoming dishevelled and his loss of footwear.

Another account from 1602 by Yu Xiaodou states that Zhenwu was busily combing his hair ready for the day ahead, when he was interrupted by a heavenly envoy who announced his appointment as a heavenly emperor. He accepted the appointment, and after bowing in thanks, continued to comb his hair but was told that since he had already accepted his heavenly appointment, his appearance was fixed, and he could no longer tie back and boot up.
A further account tells of a sculptor, commissioned to create a likeness of Zhenwu by the Yongle emperor, who caught the emperor fresh from the bath to ask what the god should look like. The reply came briskly to model the work on the Emperor himself. The plucky sculptor apparently took the Emperor at his word and modelled the God barefoot and with hair still dripping wet and hanging freely. Various documentary figures of Zhenwu are recorded but those from the late Ming period are rare and extremely important as scholars work to create a chronology in the field of later Chinese bronzes which has in recent years attracted a flurry of academic interest. For a related bronze figure of Zhenwu, dated by inscription to 1626, see Sydney L. Moss Ltd., The Second Bronze Age: Later Chinese Metalwork, London, 1991, Catalogue no. 4.

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