A RARE LIMESTONE STELE

Description:

China, Western Wei Dynasty
H. 98 cm (o.S.)
The slightly tapering pillar sculpted to all four sides with various Buddhist scenes, the front with two large niches, the lower one with Buddha Shakyamuni seated on a pedestal with his right hand in vitarkamudra while the left is showing the varadamudra, wearing monastic garment, his face displaying a serene expression, his hair continuing into the ushnisha, flanked by a pair of bodhisattvas, the upper register with the standing Buddha Shakyamuni flanked by a pair of standing bodhisattvas, a small pavilion above them showing a seated Buddha figure, the lower register with a lengthy inscription, both sides with each four niches containing each a pair of Buddha figures seated on a pedestal, the backside with three niches above each other, the lower one with a standing Buddha flanked by a pair of bodhisattvas, the middle register with Buddha Shakyamuni seated on a throne flanked by Sariputra and Maudgalyayana, six heads of worshippers above them and the upper part with Maitreya seated with legs cross on a pedestal, his right hand touching his face while the left is resting on his knee, wearing dhoti, bejewelled and his face displaying a serene expression, the incomplete inscription can more or less be read as ‘Made in the first year of the great Wei dynasty (AD 554) during the reign period of the (last) emperor Gong of the Western Wei dynasty; the Buddhist student Chu…; with respect made the stone stele of Sha(kyamuni), Maitreya, Samantabhadra, four figures; the Buddha stele, for the emperor; his majesty, the seven generations of ancestors; may all be well ’. Wood base.
From an old German private collection, assembled in the late 1980s until 1999
Cf. Osvald Sirèn, 'Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century', Vol. I, Re-Print 1998, Pl. 73, (a similar stele owned by Yamanaka, Kyoto 1922) - Partly damaged