Expert authentication: Dr. Chang Qing has authenticated this lot, identifying its iconographic and stylistic characteristics as typical of the Northern Qi period. A notarized copy of Dr. Chang's expertise, dated April 21, 2021, in the State of New York, accompanies this lot.
Dr. Chang holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Kansas and has held prestigious positions, including post-doctoral fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and senior research fellow at the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institute. He has conducted extensive research in China, participating in archaeological excavations at various historical sites. Dr. Chang is the author of several influential works, including Compassionate Beings in Metal and Stone: Chinese Buddhist Sculptures from The Freer Gallery of Art (2016) and Light of the Buddha in the Desert: Essays on Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang from 5th-14th Centuries (2012). He is currently a professor at Arts College, Sichuan University.

China, 550-577. Finely sculpted, the slender figure standing in samabhanga atop a circular pedestal, dressed in layered robes that cling to the contours of the body as they fall in two rows of U-shaped folds. The face with a serene expression crisply detailed with heavy-lidded downcast eyes, and full bow-shaped lips forming a calm smile. The hair is arranged in neatly incised whorl-like curls over the domed ushnisha.

Provenance: From a private collection in New York, United States.
Condition: Excellent condition, commensurate with age. Wear, obvious losses, natural imperfections including fissures and cracks, nicks, scratches, chips, and encrustations, minor old repairs.

Dimensions: Height 78 cm (excl. stand), 98 cm (incl. stand)

With an associated stand. (2)

Stylistically, this large standing figure of Buddha is a fine representation of Buddha figures of Northern Qi date, and its dignified, upright stance combined with the simplicity of the robes that cling to the body show the strong influence of the earlier Gupta style from Sarnath, India. The small mouth and thin nose, the large, elongated ears with flat, unpierced lobes, and the whorl-like curls are also all characteristic of the Northern Qi style.

The Northern Qi style is an indirect interpretation of the Indian Gupta style, particularly the Sarnath school, transmitted to China via the Central Asian trade routes. The adoption of the foreign style reflects the socio-political changes that occurred at the beginning of the Northern Qi period, when its rulers looked to non-Han stylistic traditions. This was in marked contrast to the Northern Wei rulers, who sought to acculturate themselves within the Han polity through a process of Sinicization.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related limestone figure of Buddha with similar garment folds, dated to the Northern Qi dynasty, in the Shangdong Provincial Museum and exhibited by the Peranakan Museum, Singapore, Serenity in Stone: The Qingzhou Discovery, 16 January-26 April 2009. Compare a closely related limestone figure of Buddha with similar garment folds, dated to the Northern Qi dynasty, in the Qingzhou Museum, Shandong Province.