Marble torso of the Buddha
China, Northern Qi dynasty, 550 - 577

A marble torso of the Buddha, wearing a thin garment that covers the entire body and falls into a wavy line just above the feet. Subtle, engraved lines on the front and on the left flank indicate the folds of the robe. The hands are now missing, but the position of the left arm indicates that the hand would have pointed downwards in the varada mudra, signifying ‘your wish is granted’. The right arm is raised; the missing hand originally indicated the ‘fear not’ mudra. The Buddha’s feet are firmly planted on an oval base, which goes down into a point. The marble has numerous crystal inclusions and the surface is mostly covered in a thick layer of calcified dust.

• Chinese Buddhist sculpture of the 6th century often shows strong signs of influence from Indian sculpture of the Gupta period, which generally emphasizes the body form. In this beautiful, serene torso, the minimizing of the diaphanous fabric and its folds achieves exactly this effect. The use of marble is unusual; most Northern Qi sculpture is carved from limestone. Stylistically, this torso relates to a group of sculptures discovered at Qingzhou, Shandong province in 1996. The sculptures in this group range in date from the Northern Wei period to the Northern Song dynasty (960 – 1279), but the Buddha sculptures of the Northern Qi dynasty generally display a similar, sober style of modelling and a predilection for simply rendered garments.1 In the group are a number of sculptures of standing Buddhas, all of whom wear simple, draped robes that cling close to the body, revealing its shape underneath.2

1 Nickel, L. (ed.) The Return of the Buddha, Buddhist Sculptures of the 6th Century from Qingzhou, China, Museum Rietberg, Zürich 2002.
2 Nickel, L. (ed.) op. cit. nos. 23-26, pp. 178-185