10th Apr, 2025 11:00
TWO-DAY AUCTION: Fine Asian Art, Buddhism and Hinduism
34
A CARVED WHITE MARBLE VOTIVE STELE OF BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI, SUI DYNASTY, DATED 600 AD
€3,000
€6,000
A buyer’s premium of 30.00% (including VAT) applies to the hammer price of this lot if your bid is successful.
Published & Exhibited: Chinese Works of Art, Weisbrod Chinese Art, 23 September-9 October 1997, p. 20-21, no. 4.
Inscriptions: To the back of the base, ‘[…]in commemoration of my parents, 23 February in the 20th year of the Sui Kaihuang period of the Sui dynasty (corresponding to 600 AD)’. To one short side of the base, ‘Gao Yi and his wife Huo Gui, in honor of their ancestors’.
China. This stele directly references a point in the Lotus Sutra when a stupa appears above the Buddha Shakyamuni while he preaches the Dharma.
Finely carved depicting Buddha Shakyamuni standing on a lotus stand at the center, his right hand in abhaya mudra and the left hand in varada mudra, backed by a prominent mandorla with petals, and attended to by the bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta.
The figures are surrounded above by heavenly apsaras and surmounted on top by a stupa of 'many treasures'. The lower section is carved with two lions centered by a lotus flower with censer and flanked by two attendants to the sides.
Provenance: Weisbrod Chinese Art, New York, USA. Michael B. Weisbrod is a noted scholar of Chinese art, who has published extensively on the subject over a time span of more than 50 years. In 1972, Michael joined his father Dr. Gerald Weisbrod’s Asian art gallery in Toronto, Canada. The father-and-son team opened their New York location on Madison Avenue in 1977, and during the next 45 years the gallery held a significant number of exhibitions, selling to museums and private collectors across the globe, eventually adding further locations in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations, obvious losses, old repairs and few touchups, nicks, chips, cracks, scratches.
Weight: 21.7 kg
Dimensions: Height 62.9 cm
Literature comparison:
Compare a related Eastern Wei limestone Buddhist stele with standing Shakyamuni flanked by two Bodhisattvas, dated ca. 545, 61 cm tall, in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, accession number 128.1988. Compare a related Northern Qi marble stele, dated mid-6th century, 56 cm high, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, accession number 1927-20-2. A related stele, also dated by inscription to the Sui Kaihuang period, with a Buddha bearing similar features and two guardian dogs under the Buddha is illustrated in Chinese Buddhist Stone Sculpture Veneration of the Sublime by Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 1995, pl. 132, p. 15. A related stele of bodhisattvas with the same carved facial features, also dated by inscription to the Sui Kaihuang period, is illustrated in Chinese Buddhist Sculpture by Dr. Saburo Matsubara, 1966, pl. (c), p. 220.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 17 September 2014, lot 415
Price: USD 120,000 or approx. EUR 152,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A white marble Buddhist stele, China, Northern Qi dynasty, dated Tianbao 4th year, corresponding to 553 AD
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, composition, and stone. Note the inscription and slightly earlier date.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 18 September 2023, lot 176
Price: USD 82,550 or approx. EUR 80,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A grey limestone stele of Buddha and two Bodhisattvas, Northern Wei dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related manner of carving with similar bases and halo. Note the size (70.8 cm).
Published & Exhibited: Chinese Works of Art, Weisbrod Chinese Art, 23 September-9 October 1997, p. 20-21, no. 4.
Inscriptions: To the back of the base, ‘[…]in commemoration of my parents, 23 February in the 20th year of the Sui Kaihuang period of the Sui dynasty (corresponding to 600 AD)’. To one short side of the base, ‘Gao Yi and his wife Huo Gui, in honor of their ancestors’.
China. This stele directly references a point in the Lotus Sutra when a stupa appears above the Buddha Shakyamuni while he preaches the Dharma.
Finely carved depicting Buddha Shakyamuni standing on a lotus stand at the center, his right hand in abhaya mudra and the left hand in varada mudra, backed by a prominent mandorla with petals, and attended to by the bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta.
The figures are surrounded above by heavenly apsaras and surmounted on top by a stupa of 'many treasures'. The lower section is carved with two lions centered by a lotus flower with censer and flanked by two attendants to the sides.
Provenance: Weisbrod Chinese Art, New York, USA. Michael B. Weisbrod is a noted scholar of Chinese art, who has published extensively on the subject over a time span of more than 50 years. In 1972, Michael joined his father Dr. Gerald Weisbrod’s Asian art gallery in Toronto, Canada. The father-and-son team opened their New York location on Madison Avenue in 1977, and during the next 45 years the gallery held a significant number of exhibitions, selling to museums and private collectors across the globe, eventually adding further locations in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations, obvious losses, old repairs and few touchups, nicks, chips, cracks, scratches.
Weight: 21.7 kg
Dimensions: Height 62.9 cm
Literature comparison:
Compare a related Eastern Wei limestone Buddhist stele with standing Shakyamuni flanked by two Bodhisattvas, dated ca. 545, 61 cm tall, in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, accession number 128.1988. Compare a related Northern Qi marble stele, dated mid-6th century, 56 cm high, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, accession number 1927-20-2. A related stele, also dated by inscription to the Sui Kaihuang period, with a Buddha bearing similar features and two guardian dogs under the Buddha is illustrated in Chinese Buddhist Stone Sculpture Veneration of the Sublime by Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 1995, pl. 132, p. 15. A related stele of bodhisattvas with the same carved facial features, also dated by inscription to the Sui Kaihuang period, is illustrated in Chinese Buddhist Sculpture by Dr. Saburo Matsubara, 1966, pl. (c), p. 220.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 17 September 2014, lot 415
Price: USD 120,000 or approx. EUR 152,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A white marble Buddhist stele, China, Northern Qi dynasty, dated Tianbao 4th year, corresponding to 553 AD
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, composition, and stone. Note the inscription and slightly earlier date.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 18 September 2023, lot 176
Price: USD 82,550 or approx. EUR 80,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A grey limestone stele of Buddha and two Bodhisattvas, Northern Wei dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related manner of carving with similar bases and halo. Note the size (70.8 cm).
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Auction: TWO-DAY AUCTION: Fine Asian Art, Buddhism and Hinduism, 10th Apr, 2025
Galerie Zacke is privileged to present a remarkable two-day live auction event, featuring 684 works of art from China, Southeast Asia, India, and beyond.
The highlight is our flagship live auction on Day 1, showcasing lots 1-269, Among the many standout pieces are a ge-type octagonal bowl from the Southern Song dynasty, part of the Jules Speelman collection (lot 137), a rare 1st-2nd century gold figure of a mother goddess from the Zelnik István Southeast Asian Gold Museum collection (lot 176), as well as a group of four parcel-gilt bronze Bodhisattvas from the Bao-Xiang Lo Palace and Temple, with Qianlong marks and of the period (lot 52).
Day 2 continues with our general auction (lots 270-684), offering seasoned collectors and new bidders alike an opportunity to enhance their collections. Learn more.
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