Torso of a Bodhisattva (one of a pair)

CultureChinese

DateSui dynasty (581-618 C.E.)

MediumWhite marble

DimensionsPart (figure): 46 × 15 × 10 inches (116.84 × 38.1 × 25.4 cm)
Part (base): 18 3/4 × 18 3/4 × 14 inches (47.63 × 47.63 × 35.56 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number40-32

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionStanding figure of a bodhisattva, head and arms lacking. Garment of dhoti, with scarves passing through a ring below the waist. Necklace with pendant jewel. One of a pair with 40-33, but sculpted by a different craftsman.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Early Tang period figural sculptures retain much of the compactness and sense of mass of earlier styles. Draperies are however more deeply and fluidly cut, albeit with a flat pleating derived from earlier works. The bend in the waist is now pronounced and looks forward to the fluid movement found in later pieces. Dingzhou was a center specializing in the production of sculpture in stone from local quarries of white marble.

Provenance

Reportedly excavated from Dingzhou, Hebei province, China;

Dr. Otto Burchard;

Purchased from Dr. Otto Burchard by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1940.

Published References

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959): 182.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 307 (repro.).

Matsubara Saburō 松原三郎, Chūgoku Bukkyō chōkoku shiron 中国仏教彫刻史論 (Tōkyō : Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, Heisei 7 1995), Plate Vol. III, 603a (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 320, fig. 113 (repro.).

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