A RARE CHINESE WHITE MARBLE BUDDHIST STELE

A RARE CHINESE WHITE MARBLE BUDDHIST STELE
NORTHERN QI DYNASTY

The sculpture with a pointed arched back, carved in high relief with a figure of Buddha with her right hand raised in abhayapani mudra, standing on a lotus throne between two bodhisattva, all beneath a panel containing lotus leaves flanked by four flying apsara, and below a stupa hung with beaded tassels and supported by two chilong, set against a ground of foliate scrolls. The whole is raised on a plinth carved with a small figure of Amitabha, his hands in namahkara mudra and two acolytes on a smaller lotus throne with twin dogs and between two further bodhisattva. The reverse undecorated, 68kg, 78.5cm high, 38cm wide, 24cm deep.

Provenance: from the collection of Adolphe Stoclet, 1871-1949.

Exhibited: Art bouddhique, Paris, Musée Cernuschi, 1913, no.512 bis.

Published: Georges A Salles and Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt, Adolphe Stoclet Collection (part I), Brussels, 1956, pp.404-405.

Cf. the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, for a larger stele dated 534, accession no.19.16. See also Sotheby’s, New York, Images of Enlightenment, 17th September 2014, lot 415 for a closely related but smaller stele dated 553.

北齊 大理石雕佛菩薩造像碑

來源：Adolphe Stoclet (斯托克萊1871-1949）收藏。

展覽：Art bouddhique, 法國巴黎賽努奇博物館, 1913年, 編號 512。

出版：Georges A Salles and Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt, Adolphe Stoclet Collection (part I), Brussels, 1956年, 頁 404-405。