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Northern China, Henan Province, circa 550-600 or slightly later. Of arched form, finely carved with Buddha Shakyamuni standing in samabhanga on a tall lotus base, his right hand lowered in abhaya mudra and the left raised holding the hem of his sanghati worn over a longdhoti, both with subtly carved folds, the face with a serene expression and downcast eyes, backed by a prominent mandorla with petals, and flanked by the bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta, each with hands held in varada and abhaya mudras, all below celestial musicians and a pair of heavenly apsaras that support an image of the seated Buddha Prabhutaratna (Abundant Treasure), the Buddha of the past who vowed to be present whenever the Lotus Sutra was invoked.
Provenance: The Kienzle Family Collection, Stuttgart, Germany. Acquired between 1950 and 1985 by siblings Else (1912-2006), Reinhold (1917-2008), and Dr. Horst Kienzle (1924-2019), during their extensive travels in Asia. Subsequently inherited by Dr. Horst Kienzle and bequeathed to the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Radevormwald, Germany. Released through museum deaccession in 2024. The Kienzle siblings were avid travelers and passionate collectors of Asian and Islamic art. During their travels, the Kienzle’s sought out and explored temples, monasteries, and markets, always trying to find the best pieces wherever they went, investing large sums of money and forging lasting relationships to ensure they could acquire them. Their fervor and success in this pursuit is not only demonstrated by their collection but further recorded in correspondences between Horst Kienzle and several noted dignitaries, businesses and individuals in Nepal and Ladakh. Their collection had gained renown by the 1970s, but the Kienzle’s stopped acquiring new pieces around 1985. Almost thirty years later, the collection was moved to the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Radevormwald, opened by Peter Hardt in 2014. Before his death in 2019, Horst Kienzle bequeathed his entire property to Peter Hardt and legally adopted him as his son, who has been using the name Peter Kienzle-Hardt ever since.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations, obvious losses, old repairs and touchups, nicks, chips, structural cracks, and scratches. Some of the original gilding and polychrome pigments remain, though these have been renewed multiple times over the centuries, including in the 19th century. Such repainting was an integral part of devotional practice—these sculptures were venerated for generations and regularly repainted as a gesture of reverence and to keep the sacred presence "alive." The apparent freshness of certain pigments should not be mistaken for modernity: this sculpture is an ancient work of art with over 1000 years of age.
Dimensions: Height 125 cm
Richly carved with a vibrant scene of veneration, encapsulating Buddhist compassion and celestial quality, the present carving encapsulates the emergence of stone steles as an important Buddhist sculptural medium in Chinese history. Holding his right hand in abhaya mudra, signifying reassurance, the Buddha conveys to the worshipers that they may receive the divine blessings.
According to the Lotus Sutra, the apsaras are the protectors of the Buddha and of doctrine. These creatures were frequently portrayed in Buddhist cave temples from at least 420 and grew in popularity during the late Northern Wei and Eastern Wei periods. The rare depiction of Prabhuratna, the Buddha from the previous historical era appears in the sky during a sermon by Shakyamuni Buddha, reminding his acolytes of the power of previous Buddhas, is a wholly Chinese invention not found in Indian art.The central Buddha’s dress here, on the other hand, is directly derived from Indian Gupta prototypes, see an example dated about 475, from the Rockefeller Collection, now at Asia Society, New York, accession number 1979.5.
Steles played an importantrole in the development of religious art in China. During the Northern and Eastern Wei dynasties, state-sponsorship of Buddhism enabled the rapid spread of the religion throughout northern China. At this time, Buddhist voluntary groups affiliated to local temples and organized by laymen became the main patrons of Buddhist steles which commemorated the group's religious, social, and territorial identity. The relative ubiquity of the medium employed to manufacture steles, and their small size, prompted a multitude of regional workshops, many of which developed their own style using the monumental cave temple carvings as a basis. Many stone Buddhist sculptures were brightly colored, as were the buildings in which they were displayed.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related larger stele with Buddha and two bodhisattvas, Eastern Wei, 310 cm high, illustrated by Edmund Capon and Liu Yang, The Lost Buddhas: Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from Qingzhou, Art Gallery of New South Wales, p. 62-63, no. 9. Compare a related smaller Eastern Wei limestone Buddhist stele with Shakyamuni flanked by two bodhisattvas, with similar polychrome decoration described as “possible […] original sixth-century colors”, 132.1 cm high, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, object number B60S112+.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Bonhams London, 5 November 2020, lot 5
Price: GBP 68,812 or approx. EUR 111,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A large limestone Buddhist stele, Eastern Wei dynasty or later
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling, manner of carving, and subject. Note the size (96 cm).
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