A RARE FOUR-SIDED STONE BUDDHIST STELE

SUI DYNASTY (AD 581-618)

Details

A RARE FOUR-SIDED STONE BUDDHIST STELE
SUI DYNASTY (AD 581-618)
One side is carved with Buddha Shakyamuni seated in dhyanasana over the pedestal throne on which he sits dressed in heavy robes that fall in voluminous folds. His right hand is held in abhaya mudra and his left in varada mudra. He is flanked by a pair of disciples, Ananda and Kashyapa, a pair of bodhisattvas wearing braided belts and low caps, and a pair of attendants kneeling before a boshanlu-type censer below. The group is set within a curtained niche with tassels on both sides and abundant foliage above. The reverse is carved with a pair of standing bodhisattvas flanking the bodhisattva Maitreya seated at center with his hands held in abhaya and varada mudras and his feet resting on lotus blossoms. The group is set within a niche surmounted by an ogival arch. The narrow sides are carved with standing representations of the Buddha and the bodhisattva Maitreya.
22 7/8 in. (58.1 cm.) high, wood stand, Japanese wood box

Provenance

Fujita Museum, Osaka, acquired prior to 1940.

Exhibited

Osaka, Fujita Museum, Chinese Painting and Scholars Objects Exhibition, Spring, 1983.

Lot Essay

A stone stele in the Reihokan Museum similarly carved with Shakyamuni Buddha and the bodhisattva Maitreya, and dated to the Sui dynasty, is illustrated by Satburo Matsubara in The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, vol. 2, Later Six Dynasties and Sui, Tokyo, 1995, no. 545 (fig. 1.)

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