Page 119 - Christie's Important Chinese Art, March 23 to 24 2023 New York

This finely carved stele is representative of the outpour of high-quality Buddhist sculpture
being made in China in the 5 century, during the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou
th
dynasties which together spanned little more than a quarter of a century but saw great
development in Buddhist art. Unlike the sculpture made in the preceding Northern Wei
dynasty, Northern Qi and Northern Zhou sculpture saw a turn towards rounder, softer, and
more naturalistic imagery.
After the downfall of the Wei Tartar dynasty and the victory of the Northern Qi and
Northern Zhou rulers, there was a breakdown in communications within China, however
the Emperor Wen Gong of the Northern Qi was a devoted Buddhist and thus succeeded
in maintaining direct communications with India. Frequent pilgrimages were made, monks
traveled across the Silk Route returning with scriptures and paintings, and hundreds of
monasteries were founded across the area of Shandong, Hebei, Henan and eastern Shanxi.
This strong relationship between the Northern Qi Emperor and Gupta India had a strong
stylistic influence on Buddhist sites and sculptures made during this time. The high-relief
jewelry on the present figure, in particular, reflects the influence of Gupta style Indian
sculptures. A Northern Qi sandstone figure of a standing bodhisattva from the Ching-ya
T’ang Collection, illustrated in The Art of Contemplation-Religious Sculpture from Private
Collections, The National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1997, pp. 126-27, no. 35, and on p.
252, has a similar necklace of three pronounced beads and a beaded and braided outer
necklace. The author notes that these distinctive necklaces are often found on figures
from Shanxi province. Compare, also, another figure of a standing bodhisattva with
similar necklaces, in the Cincinnati Art Museum, illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Chinese
Art in Overseas Collections: Buddhist Sculpture II, Taipei, 1990, p. 65, and another similar
figure dated to the Northern Qi dynasty which was unearthed in Shanxi, illustrated in
Faxiang zhuangyan: Shanxi fojiao zaoxiang yishu jingpin zhuan, Jiangxi Provincial Museum,
Shanghai, 2011, p. 54.
The facial characteristics of the present figure, especially the slightly plump face, evenly
parted hair, prominent rounded eyebrows, and distinctive finely delineated chin, as well as
the figure’s rigid stance, are characteristic of Northern Qi bodhisattvas. A limestone head
of a bodhisattva, also dating to the Northern Qi dynasty, with similarly modeled features
sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 October 2001, lot 504. A figure of a bodhisattva dated
to the Northern Qi-Sui dynasty, 6 century, with similarly rigid frontal pose to the present
th
figure, was sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2019, lot 1609. Compare, also, a massive
head of a bodhisattva from the J. T. Tai collection dated to the second half of the 6 th
century, sold at Sotheby’s New York, 3 June 1985, lot 5, which is also carved in the round
with similarly modeled facial features.

The present figure illustrated by Yamanaka, Shina koto kinseki tenkan (Exhibition of Chinese Classical Ceramics, Bronzes, and Stone Sculpture), Osaka, 1928, no. 231.
此造像載錄於山中商會著Ǘ支那۵陶金⊅展觀ǘ
૯阪
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