A VERY RARE GILT-BRONZE VOTIVE GROUP OF BUDDHAS SHAKYAMUNI AND PRABHUTARATNA

EASTERN WEI DYNASTY (AD 534-550), DATED BY INSCRIPTION TO THE 3RD YEAR OF TIANPING (AD 536)

Details

A VERY RARE GILT-BRONZE VOTIVE GROUP OF BUDDHAS SHAKYAMUNI AND PRABHUTARATNA
EASTERN WEI DYNASTY (AD 534-550), DATED BY INSCRIPTION TO THE 3RD YEAR OF TIANPING (AD 536)
The two Buddhas sit abreast in dhyanasana with their hands held in their laps in meditation. Each wears a sanghati, with the downcast face backed by a nimbus, all backed by a flaming aureole and raised on a tall base with four splayed legs, with an inscription dated to the 3rd year of Tianping (AD 536).
7 1/8 in. (18.1 cm.) high

Provenance

Private collection, Japan, acquired prior to 1930.

Literature

Saburo Matsubara, Chogoku Chokokushi Kenkyu (Chinese Buddhist Sculpture), Tokyo, 1961, pl. 86 (b).

Exhibited

Nara, Museum Yamato, Special Exhibition Chinese Gilt Bronze Statues of Buddhism from Japanese Collection, 2 October-8 November 1992, cat. no. 34.

Lot Essay

The present votive shrine belongs to a very small corpus of images depicting a scene from the Lotus Sutra, where, Prabhutaratna, the Buddha from the previous historical era appears in the sky during a sermon by Shakyamuni Buddha, reminding his acolytes of the power of previous Buddhas. The iconography is not found in Indian art, and as such is a wholly Chinese invention. The present work immediately recalls the famous, and much more elaborate, gilt-bronze votive altar, dated AD 518, in the Musée Guimet, illustrated by H. Munsterberg in Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Tokyo, 1967, p. 77, no, 34. However, there are other known votive groups more closely related to the present work, including an example in the Nezu Museum, Tokyo, illustrated in ibid., p. 77, no. 33, and one formerly in the Stoclet Collection, Brussels, illustrated in Zhongguo liu shi hai wai fo jiao zao xiang zong he tu mu (Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Statues in Overseas Collections), vol. 1, Beijing, 2005, no. 77.

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