Torso of a Bodhisattva

CultureChinese

Datelate 6th century C.E.

MediumWhite marble

DimensionsOverall (figure): 56 × 16 × 8 inches (142.24 × 40.64 × 20.32 cm)
Overall (base): 21 1/4 × 21 1/4 × 15 inches (53.98 × 53.98 × 38.1 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number40-46

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionStanding frontal figure with head and arms lacking. Garment folds in low relief with dhoti adorned with ribbons and long ropes of jewelry. Originally coated with a light coat of gesso, painted and gilded (now lacking).Gallery Label

Gallery Label

A style prevalent during the Sui Dynasty is well illustrated by this example. The garment folds are in markedly low relief, symmetrically arranged. This simplicity is relieved in the case of bodhisattvas by opulent jewelry often of great elaboration. There is only a very slight transition in the planes from front to back; the image is purely frontal, and the sides of the body scarcely exist. In this figure the arms, head, and probably the side scarves were joined to the torso with iron clamps. Since the marble was originally covered with a light coat of gesso and the whole painted and gilded, the manner of construction would not have been visible.

Provenance

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, George L. McKenna, and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. II, Art of the Orient. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 33 (repro.).

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. II, 535c (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. 112 (repro.).

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