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Vibrantly carved with a seated Buddha flanked by two
By the Northern Qi dynasty, the commissioning of Buddhist
standing bodhisattvas, this stele exemplifies the gradual stelae had become an act of personal devotion, associated
sculptural transition from the more regal, well-built figures with the accumulation of merits for a person’s future life.
of the Northern Qi (550-577) to the more plump square The turbulent years that followed the fall of the Northern Wei
features of the Northern Zhou (557-581). The figures’ dynasty and the establishment of the short-lived Northern
upright stance, fully rounded faces and light robes draping Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties, encouraged support for the
across their shoulders are characteristic of Northern teachings of the Chandragarbha Sutra, which prophesied
Qi sculptures, when a more naturalistic approach to the end of the current Buddhist era and the incarnation of
depictions of Buddhist deities was gradually adopted, while the future Buddha Maitreya. This eschatological pessimism
the oversized heads and more rhythmic rendering of the that prevailed among influential prelates of the Northern Qi,
bodhisattvas’ robes betray a more stylized and dynamic fostered the production of these stone stelae, as practitioners
depiction typical of the ensuing Northern Zhou and Sui. pleaded for salvation for them and their ancestors.
As Buddhism spread across China, devotional stone stelae A number of closely related stelae of this type, in various
like the present soon became an important part of the sizes, are preserved in important museum collections across
Buddhist artistic canon, particularly after the fifth century the world. Compare a closely related stele inscribed with
with the formation of devotional societies. These societies, a cyclical date corresponding to the year 560, carved with
made up of lay Buddhists organized around local temples, two seated Buddhas dressed in similarly draped robes in
took upon themselves various artistic projects as symbols Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku bukkyō chōkoku shiron [History
of their devotion and were among the first to adopt stone of Chinese Buddhist sculpture], Tokyo, 1995, vol. II, pl.
stelae as a medium to record their faith, ‘as monuments 384a; another, dated to the same year, ibid., pl. 384b, from
commemorating the collective groups’ religious, social, the collection of Sakamoto Gorō, sold in these rooms, 8th
and territorial identity;’ see Dorothy C. Wong, Chinese October 2013, lot 121; and a larger stele rendered in more
Steles. Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form, dramatic high relief, dated corresponding to 551, purchased
Honolulu, 2004, p. 43. from dealer C. T. Loo in 1923 and preserved at the University
of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology,
Philadelphia (accession no. C404).
A COLLECTING JOURNEY: THE JANE AND LEOPOLD SWERGOLD COLLECTION 139