SUI DYNASTY (AD 589-618)

Compare the similar gilt-bronze figure, also dated Sui dynasty, late 6th century, illustrated by D. Leidy and D. Strahan in Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, pp. 86-87, no. 12. The authors note that the willow branch, an attribute that first appeared in the late sixth century, helps to identify the figure as Avalokiteshvara. See, also, the similar figure illustrated by d'Argencé, ed., Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1974, pp. 148-49, no. 67, which is dated Northern Qi or Sui dynasty.