A marble torso of Buddha, Late Northern Qi / Sui dynasty

J.J. Lally & Co., New York, March 2002.

Simple yet spellbinding, this finely rendered torso exudes the princely yet serene grandeur of the Buddha it once depicted. With gently sloping shoulders and a flowing robe gathered in stiff yet tactile folds around the figure's feet, the present lot is a particularly fine and rare example of sculpture from the late Northern dynasties. The present torso is especially remarkable in its close attention to detail in the rendering of the Buddha’s sanghati robe. Gliding gently over his shoulder, tied with a string, and gathered loosely above his left arm, the stiff marble ‘fabric’ is brought to life by the sculptor’s skillful hand. 

It is rare to find a figure of this period, in any condition, with such lifelike rendering. Compare a related larger standing figure of the Shakyamuni Buddha attributed to the late 6th century in the Saint Louis Art Museum (accession no. 182:1919); another, attributed to the Northern Qi, with a similarly tied robe, included in The Art of Contemplation - Religious Sculpture from Private Collections, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1997, cat. no. 28; and another, also larger, of almost identical style, in the collection of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, in Osvald Sirén, ‘Chinese Marble Sculptures of the Transition Period’, BMFEA, 1940, no. 12, pl. VIIIa, in which the author describes the decade between the early 570s and the year 585 as a particular high point in the history of Buddhist sculpture.