NORTHERN QI DYNASTY (AD 550-577)

This handsome sculpture belongs to a group of distinctive openwork steles carved from creamy white marble produced in Hebei province during the Northern Qi period, mid-sixth century. This group typically features a central figure flanked by two or four attendant figures below a pair of bodhi trees, the branches of which intertwine to form a mandorla, all of which is raised on a plinth carved with various figures and lions flanking a central incense burner. A comparable stele with a central figure of seated Maitreya Buddha, dated to the 3rd year of Tianbao (AD 552), in the Ohara Museum of Art, is illustrated in Hai-wai yi-zhen: Chinese Art in Overseas Collections - Buddhist Sculpture (II), Taipei, 1990, p. 51, no. 47. Another related stele, with a central figure of seated pensive Maitreya Buddha, dated to the 2nd year of Tianbao (AD 551), in the Avery Brundage Collection, is illustrated in Gems of Chinese Art from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Hong Kong, 1983, pp. 230-231, no. 101.