Lot 137

Losses and pitting overall, old darker stone repair to front.


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Private collection, Italy
acquired from the above 3 March 2011

This sculpture in marble depicts Amitabha (the Buddha of Infinite Light), a celestial Buddha who created through his merit, a pure realm for his devotees to inhabit upon calling his name with sincerity. Amitabha is one of the most popular representations of Buddha throughout Asia, primarily due to his approachability and ease of worship for lay devotees.

The figure is carved with graceful, flowing lines to the diaphanous drapery and a plump fullness to the modelling of the limbs and torso. It is an excellent example of the sculpture of the 8th Century, the high-point of Tang Dynasty sculpture.

In the earlier dynasties, Chinese Buddhist sculpture had been more angular and heavily stylised, demonstrating a more ancient native influence, but in the Tang, probably spurred on by a renewed interest in seeking rare Buddhist scriptures from India, Buddhist sculpture took on a pronounced influence from Indian sculpture of the Gupta Period (early 4th to late 6th Century). The sculpture of the Gupta Period was highly influential on both Buddhist and Hindu sculpture throughout Asia, including Southeast Asia, the Korean peninsula, Japan and China, as India was the centre of Buddhist learning, being the birthplace of Buddhism.

Gupta sculpture is known for its generous, rounded modelling, graceful curves, and naturalism. It inherited the tradition of naturalistic Classical and Hellenistic sculpture brought to the region by Alexander the Great (356–323BC), via the sculptural traditions of the Kushan Empire of India and the Ancient Region of Gandhara. It was in Kushan that representational Buddhist sculpture was first born and developed during the 1st to 3rd Centuries. This marble figure of Buddha is therefore a clear descendant of the Greek sculptural tradition and represents the birth of naturalism in Chinese sculpture.

Carl Wantrup | Asian Art Consultant