A gilt-bronze votive triad of Avalokiteshvara and two attendants, Northern Qi dynasty, dated Wuping sixth year, corresponding to 575

Austrian Private Collection

Friedrich Georg Zeileis, Von Shang bid Qing - Dreieinhalb Jahrtausende Chinesische Bronze, Gallspach, 1999, no. 157.

The Northern Qi period (550-577) is famous for the quality of its stone sculpture, but only a small number of bronze figures survives. Of these, the majority consists of smaller figures appropriate for household altars. The current triad is a particularly well preserved example, a legacy of the short-lived but artistically productive period, which saw a further evolution from the Indian-influenced style of the Northern Wei period, to a more distinct sinicised mode of expression.

Other Northern Qi votive bronze figures include a gilt-bronze figure of a bodhisattva, dated in accordance with 574, sold at Christie’s New York, 19th September 2007, lot 184, and a gilt-bronze figure of Maitreya from the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, offered in our New York rooms, 19th/20th March 2007, lot 725.

For Northern Qi dynasty representations of Avalokitesvara in sandstone, compare the large figure, also from the collection of Sakamoto Gorō, dated in accordance with 576, illustrated by Osvald Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, London, 1925, pl. 230 A and B, and Saburo Matsubara, Chugoku Bukkyo Choukoku Shi Kenkyu/Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1966, pl. 164 (a)-(c), and offered in these rooms, 8th October 2013, lot 139.