Page 36 - March 17 2017 Chinese Art NYC, Christies

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

1018
A DATED STONE FIGURE OF AMITABHA BUDDHA

TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907), DATED BY INSCRIPTION TO AD 720
The Buddha is shown seated in padmasana on a draped tiered pedestal, holding the right hand up in vitarka
mudra, and resting the left hand in his lap. The fgure is backed by an openwork fame-carved mandorla
enclosing a halo centered behind the head, and is raised on an integral square plinth incised on the front
and left side with a lengthy inscription.
19º in. (49 cm.) high
$60,000-80,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Japan, acquired prior to 1970.
The inscription on the base of the present fgure states that it was dedicated on the 25th day of the frst
month of the eighth year of the Kaiyuan era by the Buddhist nun, Yao Fei, “for the sake of safety, she
dedicated money to make this sculpture of Amitabha, and wishes for enlightenment for all.” Compare
the present work with a stone fgure of Maitreya in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago,
illustrated by Saburo Matsubara, The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, vol. III – Tang, Five Dynasties,
Sung, and Taoism Sculpture, Tokyo, 1995, p. 644. In the treatment of the drapery, fgural and facial
proportions and hair of the fgure, and the faming aureole behind, the two works are closely related. The
Art Institute of Chicago example was dedicated just ffteen years prior to the present example, by the
Buddhist monk Yang Zongchun, for the beneft of his parents and seven generations of his ancestors.
See, also, a marble fgure of Buddha from The Collection of Robert Hatfeld Ellsworth, sold at Christie’s
New York, 20 March 2015, lot 767.
唐開元八年（720年） 石雕阿彌陀佛坐像

(inscriptions)

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