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The mid-6th century brought the downfall of the Northern a visual signifier of the change in power. At this time, the
Wei dynasty and the split of once-unified Northern China into Gupta sculptural style, appropriately named the International
two separate polities: The Northern Qi (AD 550-577) in the style, pervaded much of Asia from its origins in central India.
east and the Northern Zhou (AD 557-581) in the west. The Characterised by a sensuous rendering of the human form
Northern Qi and the Northern Zhou existed as independent only partially obscured by diaphanous robes, with the hair
kingdoms for less than a half-century before they were detailed in elegant ‘snail-shell’ curls, the Gupta style found
subsumed by the Sui dynasty (AD 581-618), but during that acceptance in the courts of the Northern Qi, and to a certain
short period, they had a profound influence on the Buddhist extent, the Northern Zhou.
art of China.
While many of the Buddhist figures of the Northern Qi
The preceding Northern Wei kings were patrons of Buddhist display the soft contours that typify the Gupta style (see, for
art, commissioning large-scale projects of rock-cut sculpture example, a polychromed and gilt-limestone figure of Buddha
and temples at the sites of Yungang and Longmen, among from The Collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, sold at Christie’s
others. The representative style of the Buddhist figures at New York, 20 March 2015, lot 755), the images of Buddha
these sites owed much to the 2nd-3rd century Gandharan and and of bodhisattvas of the Northern Zhou are significantly
Mathuran schools of Kushan India, which was transmitted into more robust and columnar, with rectangular faces and heavy
China via the trade routes of Central Asia. The Buddhist art facial features. These characteristics are exemplified in the
of Gandhara was particularly preoccupied with the rendering present figure, with its wide shoulders, upright stance, and
of drapery, and the artisans of the Northern Wei took especial almost rectangular head. With the diaphanous rendering of
relish in that regard as well. The Northern Wei images of the drapery, particularly over the thighs, and stocky features,
Buddha, particularly in the beginning of the 6th century, are the present figure has much in common with a large stone
characterised by large geometric and triangular swaths of torso of Buddha, attributed to the Northern Zhou, now at the
billowing folds, visible, for example, in the masterly gilt-bronze Nelson-Atkins Museum (fig. A)
altarpiece of Buddha Shakyamuni with Buddha Prabhutaratna,
now at the Musée Guimet (see H. Munsterberg, Chinese The rise of the Sui dynasty in AD 582 brought an end to the
Buddhist Bronzes, New York, 1967, fig. 34). kingdoms of the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou, but their
newly adopted sculptural style for Buddhist art lived on
The downfall of the Northern Wei dynasty and rise of the through the short-lived Sui, and had a pronounced effect on
Northern Qi and Zhou brought with it an innovative Buddhist the naturalistic art of the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907).
style, perhaps consciously adopted by the new rulers as
28 Masterpieces of Buddhist Art 大俱足 — 經典亞洲佛教藝術
