A rare gilt-bronze seated figure of Shakyamuni Buddha, Northern Qi – Sui dynasty

Takashi Yanagi, Kyoto, 27th April 2007.

Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2017-2018. 

Saburo Matsubara, Chūgoku Bukkyō chōkokushi kenkyū: tokuni kondōbutsu oyobi sekkutsu zōzō igai no sekibutsu ni tsuite no ronkō [On the history of Chinese Buddhist sculptures: Special discussion on gilt-bronzes and stone sculptures outside of caves], Kyoto, 1966, p. 215.

Seiko Murata, Sho Kondobutsu / The Charm of the Little Bronze Buddha, Tokyo, 2004, pl. 64.

Leopold Swergold, Thoughts on Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes, Aventura, 2014, pl. 12.

Beatrice Chan, 'Reflection and Enlightenment: Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston', Arts of Asia, January/February 2018, pp 58-65.

This extraordinary figure depicts the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, seated in dhyanasana on an elaborate hexagonal base and double lotus ring. His meditative expression, serene yet regal, captures the very essence of the Buddha: disconnected and enlightened yet grounded and princely. With his robe covering both shoulders, draped over his left arm, resting on his knee, this delicately cast figure blends the serene naturalism of the late Northern dynasties with the grandeur and voluptuous forms more typical of the ensuing Tang.

Overthrowing the Xianbei state of the Eastern Wei in 550 CE, the Northern Qi dynasty soon rose to become one of the most vibrant periods in the history of Chinese art. Producing masterpieces in both religious and secular art, the court’s openness to foreigners and their beliefs, goods and aesthetic traditions immensely enriched the local cultural climate, which in turn led to a golden age of Buddhist sculpture. While in the Northern and Eastern Wei, the Buddhist artistic canon remained dominated by South and Central Asian prototypes, by the Northern Qi these aesthetics had matured and developed into a more distinctive native style. With sinicized facial features and delicate treatment of the Buddha’s hand grasping his robe, which ruffles and flows below his seat, the present figure is an exceptional example of this artistic zenith. However, unlike the more florid decorative imagery of the ensuing Tang dynasty, these figures also remain somber and mystical in nature; emanating a seriousness of belief still rooted in the political instability of the mid-6th century. 

It is particularly rare to find figures of this type depicted atop hexagonal-waisted pedestals, which seem to have first emerged in the Northern Zhou (557-581). Compare a very similar depiction of hexagonal pedestals in Sui dynasty wall paintings found in the famous Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, caves 244, 393, 394 and 419; and a number of contemporaneous marble figures on closely related pedestals, including the Fang Xuanling Pedestal (dated corresponding to 647) in the Cleveland Museum of Art, in Osvald Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vol. III, New York, 1925, pls 405-408.