NORTHERN WEI/EASTERN WEI DYNASTY, 6TH CENTURY

This sensitively and finely cast figure of Buddha would probably have been framed by a large, detachable, flame-shaped nimbus and served as the central figure on an elaborate votive shrine, such as the example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, inscribed with a date equivalent to 524, illustrated in Zhongguo lida jinian foxiang tudian (Illustrated Chinese Buddha Images through the Ages), Beijing, 1995, p. 171, no. 120. The treatment and pattern of the robes compare closely to the present figure, with the undergarment being tied just below the chest and the sides of the robes splaying towards the bottom in a serrated pattern. Both figures also share a certain similarity in the facial features, although the head of the Metropolitan Museum figure is more elongated and the features more angular, as would be expected given its slightly earlier date.

A virtually identical bronze figure of Buddha is illustrated in Fojiao diaosu mingpin tulu (Images of Famous Buddhist Sculpture), Beiing, 1997, p. 56, no. 48. Other similar figures are in the Freer Gallery of Art, illustrated by H. Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Tokyo, 1967, no. 21, and in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo gudian diaosuguan (Ancient Chinese Sculpture Gallery), Shanghai Museum, 1997, p. 8, top left figure. Similar representations of the Buddha also appear in the stone sculpture of the period, as can be seen with the stone stele dated to the third year of the reign period of Yongxi (534), illustrated by Li Jingjie, Shifo Xuancui (Essence of Buddhistic Statues), Beijing, 1995, p. 95, no. 75.