Lot 55. Property from a European Private Collection. An important carved limestone figure of a Buddha, Northern Wei dynasty, 6th century. Heigh 107 cm. Lot Sold 144,000 EUR (Estimate 80,000 -120,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2024

Provenance: Collection of Friedrich Alfred Schmid Noerr (1877 - 1969).
Acquired from the above by the father of the present owner, 15th January 1963, and thence by family descent.

Smile of Enlightenment and Benevolence
Regina Krahl

Chinese Buddhist stone sculpture experienced one of its greatest moments in the Northern Wei period (386–534), when it was strongly patronized by the imperial court. As the Northern Wei ruling family gradually adopted a more and more Chinese lifestyle, a stylistic change also took place in Buddhist sculpture during this period. Buddhist images with foreign-looking features, which had been adopted from Indian and Central Asian prototypes, when the religion was first introduced to China, gradually disappeared and were replaced by more Chinese-looking Buddha figures. One of the most enchanting styles appeared in the late Northern Wei, as represented by the present figure, when faces with fine and noble features were depicted with a faint smile, signalling enlightenment as much as benevolence. That the deities thus appeared more approachable undoubtedly helped the rapid propagation of the religion at that time.

In sculptural terms, the period is also remarkable for the introduction of the standing figures’ poses, which is marked by a slight S-curve, with head somewhat inclined, shoulders held erect and hip thrust forward, thus seemingly breathing some life into the solid blocks of stone. With thin, voluminous garments closely enveloping the body, we can glean the contours of lissom shoulders, arms and legs. Although the hands are missing from the present statue, the poses of the arms show that the Buddha was depicted in the most characteristic stance, with the right hand in the abhaya (fear not), the left in the varada (wish-granting) mudra.

Related sculptures of the sixth century were discovered among many hoards of Buddhist stone sculptures discovered in Shandong province, the best known and best-researched of which is the find from the site of Longxing Temple, Qingzhou, where hundreds of Buddhist images had been ritually buried, perhaps as a meritorious deed in the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) after having been partially destroyed during some earlier anti-Buddhist movement. Bronze and stone sculptures of this period were also discovered at many other sites in Shandong, which are less well known, but a list of such sites, with a map, has been published by Zhang Zong in Return of the Buddha, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2002, pp. 44-6.

Several late Northern Wei steles and stele fragments from the Longxing Temple site are displaying a similar graceful pose and serene expression, with crisply cut features and dense curls of hair, are dressed in similarly draped monks’ robes, and are supported on similar circular plinths; compare a single Buddha figure illustrated in Masterpieces of Buddhist Statuary from Qingzhou City, Beijing, 1999, pp. 48/9; triad steles with Buddhas flanked by bodhisattvas, pp. 59 and 61, and Buddha heads, pp. 50 and 90.

Several related monumental Northern Wei Buddha statues datable to the 520s are still standing in Shandong province, see Return of the Buddha, op.cit., p. 34, fig. 18 and p. 45, fig. 35. Related Buddha heads have also been discovered under the pagoda of Mingdao Temple in Linqu county, see Return of the Buddha, op.cit., p. 46, fig. 36. A slightly later triad stele dating from the Northern Qi dynasty (550–577), with a Buddha flanked by bodhisattvas, was excavated in Boxing county, Shandong, and is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji: Diaosu bian [Complete series on Chinese art: Sculpture section], Beijing, 1988, vol. 3, p. 12 top left.

Another similar triad stele, dated in accordance with 507, is included in Shi fo pian. Lai zi Beijing Baoli Bowuguan Yuanmingyuan zhongxian Taiwan [Stone Buddha section: From Poly Art Museum, Beijing, the Old Summer Palace reappears in Taiwan], Taipei, 2002, pp. 12/13, together with a fragmentary example dated in accordance with 533, p. 18, and with a fragmentary standing Buddha figure, pp. 24-7. A stele centred by a similar Buddha figure was also published online in April 2024 as ‘Object of the Month’ by Gisèle Croës, Brussels.

A related style, but with garment folds carved in somewhat higher relief and thus obscuring the body contours further, was prevalent at the same time in Shaanxi province, as seen on the figure of Maitreya from a triad stele dated in accordance with 534, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 19.16), illustrated in Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku Bukkyō chōkoku shiron [Historical survey of Chinese Buddhist sculpture], Tokyo, 1995, vol. 1, pl. 199 and in Osvald Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, London, 1925 (reprint Bangkok, 1998), pl. 143, where another related stele from Shaanxi, in the collection of R. Gualino, Turin, is illustrated pl. 138. Matsubara also publishes a related Northern Wei triad stele in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., pl. 201, which Sirén attributes to Henan, op.cit., pl. 183, that equally displays the general style of the period, but in a somewhat different local interpretation.

Friedrich Alfred Noerr (1877-1969) was a German philosopher and writer. He grew up in Baden and taught philosophy and aesthetic at the university of Heidelberg, pursuing also a career as a writer associated with the Neo-Romantic movement.

Sotheby's. Arts d'Asie, 14 june 2024