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Lot Essay
The inscription, dated to the cyclical renwu day, 1st month, 1st year of Dading (AD 581), includes the names of those who commissioned the figure in memory of their late father and also identifies the deity as Maitreya.
Compare the very similar Northern Zhou stone figure of a seated bodhisattva dated to the 1st year of Jiande (AD 572), illustrated in Saburo Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1966, no. 128c, fig. 98. It is interesting to note that both the present figure and the Jiande-dated bodhisattva are seated on drum-form stools covered with tasseled cloth, which is rare in the Six Dynasties sculptures. Compare, also, a Northern Zhou stone figure of a seated bodhisattva with similarly rendered face, in the collection of Kyoto University, illustrated in ibid, no. 256.
Compare the very similar Northern Zhou stone figure of a seated bodhisattva dated to the 1st year of Jiande (AD 572), illustrated in Saburo Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1966, no. 128c, fig. 98. It is interesting to note that both the present figure and the Jiande-dated bodhisattva are seated on drum-form stools covered with tasseled cloth, which is rare in the Six Dynasties sculptures. Compare, also, a Northern Zhou stone figure of a seated bodhisattva with similarly rendered face, in the collection of Kyoto University, illustrated in ibid, no. 256.