A HUANGHUASHI FIGURE OF BUDDHA NORTHERN ZHOU DYNASTY |

carved in the form of Shakyamuni Buddha seated on a rectangular throne with loose robes draping over the body and falling in folds over the platform, above a pair of protrusions, each rudimentarily modelled in the form of a lion and flanking a central incense burner, the right hand raised in abhaya mudra, the face rendered serene and framed by an ushnisha and a pair of pendulous earlobes, all against a flame-shaped mandorla

A Japanese collection since the 1920s.

This figure is remarkable for the crisp and vigorous rendering of the Buddha’s robe that falls in regular pleats over the rectangular stand. The Buddha is rendered almost in the round, his head appearing almost detached from the mandorla behind. While stylistically this piece stands firmly in the sculptural tradition of the Northern Zhou (557-581) period, it follows the manner of the 2nd and 3rd century of depicting the Buddha seated on a throne guarded by lions. This iconography is found among the earliest anthropomorphic depictions of Buddha from Mathura in northern India, Gandhara in present-day Pakistan, and China. It is in this period that the Mahayana sutras and their translations began circulating, encouraging the belief that images of the Buddha were meant to help devotees visualise enlightenment and thus acquire merit.  

A stele with a similarly carved Buddha, dated by inscription in accordance with 572, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in the Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum. Sculpture, vol. 6: Brass and Stone Sculpture, Beijing, 2011, pl. 14; a stele with two further bodhisattvas, dated by inscription equivalent to 570, is illustrated in Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku bukkyō chōkoku shiron [History of Chinese Buddhist sculpture], Tokyo, 1995, vol. II, pls 365a and b, together with another of 572, pl. 365c.