Page 126 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

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An early eighth-century Seated Buddha now in the collection of the Harvard
Art Museums (1943.53.22) perhaps best demonstrates the transition from
the seventh-century style to the mature Tang style of the eighth century.
(See S. Wolohojian, (ed.), Harvard Art Museums Handbook, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 2008. p. 35.) Like the present marble Buddha, the Harvard
Buddha has broad shoulders, a slender waist, and diaphanous drapery. In
addition, its drapery folds, which resemble tailored pleats, are very close in did not inject the note of drama characteristic of late seventh- and eighth-
style to those of the present marble Buddha. In contrast to the elegantly
smooth, slightly abstract rendering the marble Buddha’s torso, the chest of
the Harvard Buddha is clearly diferentiated from the abdomen, just as the
pectorals are clearly distinguished right from left. Moreover, the Harvard
Buddha’s clinging drapery reveals even more of the body’s structure than
does that of the present marble Buddha, giving a very precise description of
the underside of the fgure’s left foot, for example. Though more voluminous
than that of the present marble Buddha, the Harvard Buddha’s drapery is less
abundant than that of the Kansas City and Los Angeles Buddhas; as with
those two Buddhas, however, the Harvard Buddha’s drapery covers the space
between torso and right arm, a signal diference from the arrangement of the
present marble Buddha’s drapery. Though close in style, the two Buddhas
likely were created a few decades apart, the Harvard Buddha in the early
eighth century, and the present marble Buddha in the late seventh century or
at the very beginning of the eighth.
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The pedestal also speaks to the sculpture’s late seventh- or very early eighth-
century date. Although double-lotus pedestal had appeared by the Northern
Qi and Sui periods, the upper and lower elements of those sixth-century
pedestals typically are similar in size and shape, and, in fact, are near mirror
images of each other. In addition, the cylindrical column or octagonal pier
connecting upper and lower tiers was only modestly constricted and thus
century examples. (See Matsubara Saburo, Chugoku Bukkyo Chokoku Shiron
[A History of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture], illustration vol. 2, Later Six
Dynasties and Sui, Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1995, pp. 489-491. Also see
Wai-kam Ho “Notes on Chinese Sculpture from Northern Ch’i to Sui, Part I:
Two Seated Stone Buddha in the Cleveland Museum”, Archives of Asian Art,
22, 1968-1969, p. 9, fg 2; p. 10, fg. 5; p. 19, fg. 15; p. 26, fg. 27; p. 28, fg. 32;
p. 30, fg. 36.) Double-lotus pedestals from the second half of the seventh
century and very beginning of the eighth rank among the most dramatic
of all, as witnessed by that of the present marble Buddha, which has an
octagonal lower element and a circular upper element, the transition from
octagonal to circular bridged by an elaborate and dramatically constricted
central post. A few decades into the eighth century the lotus petals of the
upper tier would become more sculptural and more fully three-dimensional,
their tips supporting the cascading drapery in a series of rhythmically spaced
and harmoniously arranged points; in addition, the central connecting post
would become shorter, less elaborate, and less dramatic as the cascading
drapery covering the pedestal’s upper tier obviated the need for an aesthetic
bridge to harmonize upper and lower elements. (For mature eighth-century,
double-lotus pedestals, see the Kansas City and Los Angeles Buddha
mentioned above.)