拍品專文
This figure belongs to the late Northern Qi or early Sui period. Of particular note is the simple treatment of the jewelled garland knotted and crossed at the waist and the accompanying scarves that cross and rise again, and wind around the wrists of this figure. The double circles at the shoulders are also a prominent feature peculiar to to a group of sculptures, cf. Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture (II), pl.85 for a figure in the Cincinnati Art Museum also with double circles in the same location. The layered folds and pleats are more elaborately treated on a Northern Qi Guanyin figure from Pennsylvania, cf., ibid. pl.66. For another example of sculptural style where the surface is simplified to emphasise sculptural mass, see, Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collection, Buddhist Sculpture, pl.50 for a figure in the Musuem fur Ostasiatische Kunst, Berlin, dated Northern Qi.
The more serene and softened facial features are modified from the Eastern Wei style, as are the basic rudiments of drapery treatment, cf., ibid., pl.40 for a seated bodhisattva of the Eastern Wei in the Boston Musuem of Fine Arts. In the Northern Qi, this style was adapted to more rounded surfaces overall but there is also an ongoing process of abstraction resulting in the elimination of rhythmic and dense drapery in favour of greater mass and a more defined silhouette.
The transition to a fully columnar Sui style was not immediate and strong antecedents of the various Northern Qi styles (more simple and semi columnar) and the Northern Zhou styles (more ornamental relief jewellery and Gupta-influenced physical features) persist, cf. Matsubara, Chugoku Bukkyo Chokoku Silun, Illustrations, vol.2, pl.477 (dated Northern Qi); pl.350 (dated Northern Zhou) and pl.477, a torso dated to the Sui Dynasty, pl.497; a large bodhisattva in the Tokyo National Museum dated A.D. 585; two seated bodhisattvas with very simple surface decoration in the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, pl. 536a and b (both dated Sui); and the large standing bodhisattva with highly elaborate jewelled garlands and belt, also in the Fogg Museum, pl.561, dated Sui Dynasty.
These variations carry through to the end of the Sui, cf. pl.579b from the Osaka Municipal Museum, a figure that still carries Northern Qi traits inherited probably from the Xiangtangshan bodhisattva cited above, and a figure in the Xian Beilin Museum, pl.587b that has amalgamated elements of both Northern Qi and Zhou styles at the end of the Sui period
The more serene and softened facial features are modified from the Eastern Wei style, as are the basic rudiments of drapery treatment, cf., ibid., pl.40 for a seated bodhisattva of the Eastern Wei in the Boston Musuem of Fine Arts. In the Northern Qi, this style was adapted to more rounded surfaces overall but there is also an ongoing process of abstraction resulting in the elimination of rhythmic and dense drapery in favour of greater mass and a more defined silhouette.
The transition to a fully columnar Sui style was not immediate and strong antecedents of the various Northern Qi styles (more simple and semi columnar) and the Northern Zhou styles (more ornamental relief jewellery and Gupta-influenced physical features) persist, cf. Matsubara, Chugoku Bukkyo Chokoku Silun, Illustrations, vol.2, pl.477 (dated Northern Qi); pl.350 (dated Northern Zhou) and pl.477, a torso dated to the Sui Dynasty, pl.497; a large bodhisattva in the Tokyo National Museum dated A.D. 585; two seated bodhisattvas with very simple surface decoration in the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, pl. 536a and b (both dated Sui); and the large standing bodhisattva with highly elaborate jewelled garlands and belt, also in the Fogg Museum, pl.561, dated Sui Dynasty.
These variations carry through to the end of the Sui, cf. pl.579b from the Osaka Municipal Museum, a figure that still carries Northern Qi traits inherited probably from the Xiangtangshan bodhisattva cited above, and a figure in the Xian Beilin Museum, pl.587b that has amalgamated elements of both Northern Qi and Zhou styles at the end of the Sui period