An extremely rare and finely painted marble Double-Bodhisattva Stele China, Sui Dynasty, dated 595 AD

the very white stone finely carved with two bodhisattvas in opposing poses, possibly Avalokitesvara and Mahastamaprapta, each holding a lotus bud up and a heart-shaped fan pendent, their elongated columnar bodies dressed in long robes with richly gilded borders and a gilded pectoral, both standing on lotus bases before a large leaf-shaped mandorla painted with large flowering lotus issuing from a vase and framed by a broad band of curling flames, the reverse of the mandorla finely painted with the Buddha Sakyamuni seated on a lotus throne preaching beneath a bodhi tree flanked by male and female donor figures, each finely dressed in Sui Dynasty costumes, the rectangular block base carved with a long dedication beginning Kaihuang shiwunian (595 AD) on two sides, leaving the front and other short side with painted traces of further male and female donor figures and a central vase

Formerly in a Japanese private collection

The inscription on the back of the stele states that "On the eighth day of the third month in the fifteenth year of Kaihuang, Li Shansou and his elder sister, Mrs. Huo, made this stele in honour of their deceased father and mother." One of the sides is further inscribed with a wish that the blessings may extend to the ruler and spread for universal benefit. The date refers to a year in the first Sui dynasty reign, equivalent to AD 595. 

Double-bodhisattva steles were popular particularly from the Northern Qi period onwards, and since this stele appears to have been dedicated only in the first year of the new dynasty, its stylistic influences are those of the preceding dynasty. It is also interesting to note that the inscription specifically alludes to the dynastic transfer of power.

The nature of the marble on the present example and the quality of the gilded and painted decoration relates it closely to other examples from Hebei province, such as the famous Maitreya steles in 'pensive thought' pose, including one now in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by Rene Lefebvre d'Argence, Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, 1974, no.56, pp.130-133. Compare a famous double-bodhisattva stele, identified as two emanations of Maitreya, with an inscription dated AD 565, from Quyang county, Hebei province, in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC, illustrated in Matsubara Saburo, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1966, pl.149 (b), and also discussed by Jan Stuart & Chang Qing, 'Chinese Buddhist Sculpture in a New Light at the Freer Gallery of Art', Orientations, April 2002,p.33, fig.7.

A very similar stele dated to AD 567 is illustrated op.cit., pl.149 (c) and two smaller undated steles of this type in the Poly Art Museum, Beijing, are published in Baoli cang zhen: Shi ke fojiao zao xiang jingpin xuan, Guangzhou, 2000, pp.194-201. The prevalence of gilding and pigments on the present stele is rare, and in fact the portrayal of lay donor figures on the reverse of the stele appears to be extremely rare. That the secular figures are portrayed in such large size and placed so closely to the divine Buddha is extremely unusual. Compare the prevalence of gilding and pigments on a marble stele, said to be from Dingzhou county, Hebei province, with related bodhisattva figures, exhibited Eskenazi Ltd., Early Chinese Art from Tombs and Temples, London 1993, no.44,pp.130-33, with its accompanying conservation report, pp.12-21.