Lot Essay
The base bears a dated inscription (much now illegible) and donor names. The left side is inscribed with the date, reading third or fifth year of Tian Bao era, corresponding to 553 or 555, the right side has two visible donor names, Gao Jing Han and Li Shao Xian, and the back has two visible donor names, Gao Dao Ren and ?Fan Bao
Besides this bodhisattva, Siren illustrates three others of similar type, Chinese Sculpture, op. cit., one from the Collection of T. Hara, Sannotani, pl. 527A, and two from the Victoria and Albert Museum, pl. 528A and B. Each figure holds the same attributes and is similarly dressed, although this figure wears the simplest necklace. Compare also a smaller painted white marble figure sharing the same characteristics of pose and sensibility dated Northern Qi, illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. II, pl. 142, p. 69; and two subsidiary bodhisattvas which are part of a Northern Qi votive stele, included in the traveling exhibition, Light of Asia: Buddha Sakyamuni in Asian Art, Los Angeles County Museum, 1984-85, Catalogue no. 140. Although these two flanking figures have broader faces, the style of the diadem, the positioning of the hands, the stance and the wearing of a dhoti as a skirt are very reminiscent of this figure. The separate base of the latter example is also carved with a pair of lions flanking a central cintamani, which is supported by two seated figures rather than a single figure
The present example is possibly the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. For a similar standing figure (with later added head) sÿee Michael Sullivan, The Cave Temples of Maichishan, 1969, pl. 68, the figure on Buddha's left
Besides this bodhisattva, Siren illustrates three others of similar type, Chinese Sculpture, op. cit., one from the Collection of T. Hara, Sannotani, pl. 527A, and two from the Victoria and Albert Museum, pl. 528A and B. Each figure holds the same attributes and is similarly dressed, although this figure wears the simplest necklace. Compare also a smaller painted white marble figure sharing the same characteristics of pose and sensibility dated Northern Qi, illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. II, pl. 142, p. 69; and two subsidiary bodhisattvas which are part of a Northern Qi votive stele, included in the traveling exhibition, Light of Asia: Buddha Sakyamuni in Asian Art, Los Angeles County Museum, 1984-85, Catalogue no. 140. Although these two flanking figures have broader faces, the style of the diadem, the positioning of the hands, the stance and the wearing of a dhoti as a skirt are very reminiscent of this figure. The separate base of the latter example is also carved with a pair of lions flanking a central cintamani, which is supported by two seated figures rather than a single figure
The present example is possibly the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. For a similar standing figure (with later added head) sÿee Michael Sullivan, The Cave Temples of Maichishan, 1969, pl. 68, the figure on Buddha's left