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Lot Essay
The theme of Prabhutaratna and Sakyamuni seated together comes from the Lotus Sutra, chapter 11, in which a jewelled stupa appears at a gathering of Buddhist divinities, rising up out of the earth and hovering in the air. It opens miraculously to reveal the Buddha of the past age, Prabhutaratna, inside. He offers half his seat to Sakyamuni, who joins him.
This scene is frequently depicted in Buddhist art from the Northern Wei into the Tang dynasties in China. Gilt-bronze examples include the famous Buddha pairs in the Nezu Museum, Tokyo, dated 489 and in the Musée Guimet, dated 518. Another of Sui dynasty date, dated 609, and showing the Buddhas with separate halos seated under a pointed arch-shaped lintel is in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, illustrated by H. Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Rutland, Vermont, 1967, pls. 33-5. Compare, also, the stele dated 606 in the Sui Dynasty excavated in Tangxian, Hebei, in 1957, and now in the Tianjin City Art Museum illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji: Diaosu, vol. 4, Beijing, 1988, pl. 8.
For a thorough discussion of this theme see, J. Steuber, 'Shakyamuni and Prabhutaratna in 5th and 6th Century Chinese Buddhist Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art', Arts of Asia, March-April 2006, pp. 85-103.
This scene is frequently depicted in Buddhist art from the Northern Wei into the Tang dynasties in China. Gilt-bronze examples include the famous Buddha pairs in the Nezu Museum, Tokyo, dated 489 and in the Musée Guimet, dated 518. Another of Sui dynasty date, dated 609, and showing the Buddhas with separate halos seated under a pointed arch-shaped lintel is in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, illustrated by H. Munsterberg, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, Rutland, Vermont, 1967, pls. 33-5. Compare, also, the stele dated 606 in the Sui Dynasty excavated in Tangxian, Hebei, in 1957, and now in the Tianjin City Art Museum illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji: Diaosu, vol. 4, Beijing, 1988, pl. 8.
For a thorough discussion of this theme see, J. Steuber, 'Shakyamuni and Prabhutaratna in 5th and 6th Century Chinese Buddhist Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art', Arts of Asia, March-April 2006, pp. 85-103.