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Standing Attendant Bodhisattva
Standing Attendant Bodhisattva

Standing Attendant Bodhisattva

CultureChinese
Dateca. 725 C.E.
MediumCoarse sandstone with traces of original coloring
DimensionsOverall: 26 × 13 × 5 inches (66.04 × 33.02 × 12.7 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number32-65/1
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 204
Collections
DescriptionHeadless standing figure facing toward proper left, with left hip thrust out, the right knee bent, the left arm pendant, holding a fragment of the figure's scarf, the right arm is broken off at the elbow. Wears Indian style drapery, a long dhoti with a girdle and a flowing scarf draped diagonally across the upper body. Also wears a necklace with a pendant jewel, armlets, and bracelets. Traces of original polychrome.Gallery Label
Despite appearances, this figure is not a pair with the one on the other side of the Buddha to the right.  Both do, however, come from the same cave chapel.  The skirt and scarves follow Indian models.  The articulation of chest muscles, the prominent demarcation of the belly, and the slightly puffy volumes are among the characteristics of High Tang period sculpture.
Provenance

Cave Four, Tianlongshan, Shanxi Province, China

Yamanaka & Co., New York,

Purchased from Yamanaka & Co. by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1932.

Published References

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 96 (repro.).

Harry Vanderstappen and Marhylin Rhie, “The Sculpture of T’ien Lung Shan: Reconstruction & Dating”  Artibus Asiae, vol. 27, no. 3, (1965): 194, fig. 10b (repro.).

Hugo Munsterberg, Der Ferne Osten, Baden-Baden, 196, p. 64 (repro.).

Li Yuqun and Li Gong.  Tianlongshan shiku (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2003),  fig. 106 (repro.).

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