Marble Stele with a Central Figure of Buddha Sākyamuni

Northern Qi Period, 549 - 577
Early Chinese Art from Tombs and Temples, 1989

This sculptural group, carved both on the front and the reverse, is beautifully carved in the finest white micaceous marble.  The iconography of the stele, with Buddha Sākyamuni flanked by attendants and Bodhisattvas on the front and a meditating figure of Maitreya on the reverse, found a special favour in the Northern Qi period.  Most unusually, the present carving still retains much of its original pigments.