A RARE STONE FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

Details

A RARE STONE FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA
SUI DYNASTY

The standing figure shown holding an amphora in the left hand, wearing a cape over the shoulders, a pleated skirt under a plain over-skirt, a long beaded necklace falling almost to the bare feet and a large flowerhead medallion at the waist superimposed over looped scarves and a long beaded tassle hanging pendent from a collar encircling the neck, the face well carved with delicate features set in a gentle expression and the hair bound with a foliate-decorated ribbon gathered in bows on the sides above scarves trailing down over the shoulders, the stone with dark grayish-brown patina
29in. (68.6cm.) high approx., stand

Lot Essay

For a Sui figure flanked by diciples in the Metropolitan Museum of Art dated to the 3rd year of Kaiwang (583 A. D.) with similarly flat depiction of the pleats and related headdress, see Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from the Wei through the T'ang Dynasty, Taipei, 1983, pp. 142-143, no. 19. The same figure is also illustrated by Saburo Matsubara, Chuugoku Bukkyo Chokokushi Ron, (The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture), vol. 2, Late Six Dynasties and Sui, Japan, 1995, pl. 522a. See, also, the gray stone Sui figure of a bodhisattva holding a flask in Matsubara, ibid, pl. 587a