6TH CENTURY

Details

A GILT-BRONZE BUDDHIST ALTAR
6TH CENTURY
The central slender figure of a bodhisattva wearing an ornate ribbon-tied headdress, long chain necklace gathered below the waist and a shawl hanging pendent down the sides of the robes, shown with right hand raised in abhaya mudra and the left in varada mudra, backed by a petal-form nimbus attached to tabs projecting from the figure's back and flanked by two monks and two further bodhisattvas standing on lotus plants that fit into the sides of the four-legged pedestal base which is applied on the front with two guardians flanking a lotus
9½ in. (24.2 cm.) high, stand and box

Provenance

Chen Chi Collection, Tokyo.

Literature

Rikucho no bijitsu, Osaka Municipal Art Museum of Fine Arts, 1975, p. 37, no. 3-184.

Lot Essay

In the past this piece has been variously dated when published: Northern Qi dynasty (550-577) in Rikucho no bijitsu and Sui dynasty in Fojiao Diaosu Mingpin Tulu, Beijing, 1997, p. 291, no. 271 (left). While an almost identical altar was dated Eastern Wei dynasty by Yuzo Sugimura in Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, and Jades in Japanese Collections, Honolulu, 1966, Part II, pl. 46. A similar example illustrated by S. Matsubara, Chuugoku bukkyo chokokushi ron (The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture), vol. 2, Late Six Dynasties and Sui, Japan, 1995 ed., pl. 575, is dated to the Sui dynasty.

More from Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

View All