Page 112 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
1133
A RARE SMALL PALE GREY STONE BUDDHIST STELE
NORTHERN QI DYNASTY (AD 550-577)
The stele is well carved in high relief in the center with Buddha Sakyamuni fanked by two bodhisattvas,
the Buddha shown with its right hand in varada mudra and wearing simple clinging robes. The face is
carved with serene expression and the hair is also simply indicated with curved outline and rounded usnisa.
The socle on which the Buddha stands is clutched on the sides by one fore-claw of the fanking dragons,
their bodies contorted and necks twisted around as lotus pods issue from their jaws to support the socles
of the two bodhisattvas, one standing beneath an apsara playing a qin.
13æ in. (35 cm.) high, stand
$50,000-80,000

PROVENANCE
Stephen Junkunc, III (1904-1978) Collection, acquired in the 1960s.

The iconography of this stele was quite prevalent during the Northern Dynasties period and can be seen
in a number of comparable stele including one in the Detroit Institute of Arts, illustrated in Chinese Art
in Overseas Collections: Buddhist Sculpture, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1990, p. 67, no. 62, where
it is dated Sui dynasty; and two others dated Eastern Wei, illustrated by S. Matsubara, Chugoku bukkyo
chokokushi ron (The Path of Buddhist Sculpture), vol. 1, Early Six Dynasties, Tokyo, 1995, pl. 286 a and b.
The sculptures discovered in a large cache at the Longxing Temple, Qingzhou, Shandong, in 1996, also
included stele of Northern Wei to Northern Qi date that have the same iconography. See, Masterpieces
of Buddhist Statuary from Qingzhou City, The National Museum of Chinese History, Qingzhou Municipal
Museum, Beijing, 1999, pp. 56-73.

In all of these, as in the present example, Buddha Sakyamuni is shown standing on a small plinth fanked
by two bodhisattvas, most likely Avalokitesvara and Samantabhadra, the two most closely associated
with Sakyamuni. The bodhisattvas are supported by lotus plants issuing from the mouths of dragons,
and there are apsaras carved on the nimbus above the fgures.
The fgures on the present stele show the more rounded faces, and simply defned, light, clinging robes
of the Northern Qi style, which was infuenced by Gupta sculpture.
The iconography of the dragon and the lotus in such a linear and dramatic form appears to be specifc
to the sculpture of the Shandong region, although the exact meaning is not clear. It may, however, point
to the longstanding association of dragons in Chinese sculpture with life-giving rains and the harvest.
北齊 石灰岩雕背屏式佛三尊像

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