PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION
AN INSCRIBED LIMESTONE BUDDHIST STELE, NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY, DATED DINGHAI YEAR, CORRESPONDING TO 387, 447 OR 507
Auction Closed
September 23, 08:35 PM GMT
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
AN INSCRIBED LIMESTONE BUDDHIST STELE
NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY, DATED DINGHAI YEAR, CORRESPONDING TO 387, 447 OR 507
北魏丁亥年（387、447或507年） 石灰石雕佛三尊像
the central Buddha standing on a narrow rectangular base, the body draped in a voluminous robe gathered at the chest and cascading in fine rippling pleats, stopping at the ankles to reveal the bare feet, the right hand in abhaya mudra and the left gathering up the long sleeve, the figure flanked by two attendant bodhisattvas, one holding a lotus bud in each hand, all against a low-relief ground of vases issuing floral and foliate scrolls, the narrow sides with broad floral scrolls, the reverse carved with registers of the 'Thousand Buddha' motif and inscribed at the lower half
銘文（部分）：
丁亥 唯那賈念唯□□ 諸法儀造立釋迦聞佛石 皇帝殿下 太子太
Height 30¼ in., 76.8 cm
Michel Beurdelay, Paris, 1980s.
來源
Michel Beurdelay，巴黎，1980年代
Compare a stele of Maitreya of related shape and proportions, with the Buddha in a similar pose with shoulders and hands also emphasized in higher relief, in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated in Hai-wai Yi-chen: Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture I, Taipei, 1986, pl. 8. Another similar stele with the 'Thousand Buddha' motif at the back, but with relatively taller attendant bodhisattvas, is in the collection of the Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, included in Saburo Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture: A study based on bronze and stone statues other than works from cave temples, Tokyo, 1966, pls 77A-D. See two other examples with more columnar figures and linear drapery: the first in the collection of the Saint Louis Museum of Art, illustrated in op. cit. pl. 9, and the second in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, included in Hai-wai Yi-chen: Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture II, Taipei, 1990, pl. 8.
The stylized motif of bottle vases issuing floral and foliate scrolls, carved in the spaces between the figures, is rare. However, compare a large stele of Shakyamuni with two bodhisattvas in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Osvald Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the fifth to the fourteenth century: over 900 specimens in stone, bronze, lacquer and wood, principally from Northern China, Thailand, 1998, pls 92 & 93. The narrow sides of this stele are carved in low-relief, depicting a bottle vase with stylized lotus scrolls emerging out of the mouth. See also a Northern Wei sandstone stele with a cartouche framing the central Buddha, carved with a bottle issuing leaf-form scrolls, sold at Christie's New York, 19th March 2009, lot 531.
The treatment of drapery is particularly lively in the present piece, seen in the rhythmic, tight folds that fall almost symmetrically down and flare outwards. Stylistically it is comparable to the drapery found in a stele of a standing Buddha, also attributed to the Northern Wei dynasty, and illustrated in Sirén, op. cit., pl. 149. The billowing drapery of the attendant bodhisattvas in the present stele is also rare, imbuing the image with a sense of dynamism and movement.