A fine carved stele with Buddhist trinity

Estimated Value:

15.000 € - 25.000 €

Result:

15.540 € incl. Premium and VAT

Description:

China, Northern Wei Dynasty, dated 456 AD.
H. 54,5 cm
Relief votive stele made of limestone, carved in high relief. In the centre stands a Buddha in robes raised on a lotus, his right hand in a teaching gesture (vitarka mudra), flanked by two smaller standing companion figures, presumably bodhisattvas, also on lotus pedestals. Above the Buddha's head appears another small Buddha figure, surrounded by a mandorla-like aureole with flaming lotus ornaments. The upper zone is richly decorated with sculpted flame motifs that emphasise the radiance of the awakened one. The inscription on the back, dated below three rows of figures, refers to a foundation of the kind that was common in the 5th century in the Northern Wei dynasty and points to the deep fraternity of the donor families. Works of this kind were used to worship Buddha and were used in shrines or temples. Inscribed: 大魏太安二年嵗在丙申冬十月十五日佛弟子王吉為兄弟五人咸同斯福 D Wei Tai’an ernian sui zai bingshen dong shiyue shiwu ri fo dizi Wang Ji wie xiongdi wu ren xian tong si fu (On the fifteenth day of the tenth month of winter in the Bingshen year, the second year of the Tai'an reign of the Great Wei Dynasty [456 AD], Wang Ji, a Buddhist disciple, and his five brothers shared this blessing).
Important private collection Rhineland, acquired on 26.11.1956, Lot 53 at Hauswedell in Hamburg, illustrated on page 17 in the auction catalogue and described on page 16. By descent within the family to the present owner
Cf. a similar stele with Maitreya in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, dated 534, from the Rogers Fund, 1919. object no. 19.16. The stele impressively shows the formal rigour and at the same time spiritual expressiveness of early Chinese Buddhist sculptures. The dating to the year 456 AD places it in the reign of Emperor Wencheng (440-465), an era of intensive Buddhist promotion - Minor damages and minor restorations

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