Lot 20. A dated gilt-bronze figure of a Bodhisattva, Northern Wei dynasty, dated 495; 11.4cm., 4 3/8 in.. Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 GBP. Lot sold 25,000 GBP (34,847 EUR). Photo courtesy Sotheby's.

cast standing with the right arm raised, wearing long robes falling into neat pleats, the face with a meditative expression with hair piled up into a high chignon, all before a leaf-shaped mandorla incised to the front with flame-like projections, the reverse with a Buddha seated in a temple flanked by two attendants and accompanied with an inscription, all supported on a domed base raised on a four-legged plinth, the side of the base inscribed and dated to nineteenth year of Taihe (corresponding to 495), wood stand and Japanese wood box.

Exhibited: Tokubetsu tenji Rikuchō jidai no Kondōbutsu [Gilt-bronze statues from the Six Dynasties], Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Osaka, 1991, cat. no. 41.

Literature: Saburo Matsubara, Chūgoku bukkyō chōkokushi ron [Historical discussion of Chinese Buddhist sculpture], Tokyo, 1995, vol. 1, pl. 77d-e.

Note: The inscription on this piece may be translated: 

Commissioned by… from Lingzhou county [Hebei province] in memory of his brother who passed away.

The 23rd of the 2nd month of the 19th year of Taihe reign [corresponding to AD 495].

Sotheby's. The Soul of Japanese Aesthetics – The Tsuneichi Inoue Collection, London, 13 may 2015