Northern Qi Dynasty, (AD 550-577) Depicted as a slender figure, with an alluringly peaceful countenance surrounded with almond-shaped eyes in meditation, elongated face flanked by a large pair of pendulous earlobes, tight curls over the ushnisha, now-lost hands of which would have illustrated the right hand in abhaya mudra, and the left hand lowered as it holds the edge. Traces of gold leaf and coloured red pigments. The Northern Qi period witnessed a revolutionary change in Buddhist style, particularly regarding drapery, from the early Wei period. While the artisans of the Northern Wei depicted the Buddha’s robes with a deep neck and voluminous, rippling folds, Northern Qi robes are soft, revealing the sumptuous contours of the body beneath. This beautiful figure, like others of this period, is lavishly painted and gilded in imitation of the Buddha’s patchwork robes, the gilding used to delineate the seams between each square of red cloth. For a closely related example see, Masterpieces of Buddhist statuary from Qinzhou City, Beijing, 1999, p. 108. Size: L:1040mm / W:280mm ; 30+kg. Provenance: UK Somerset estate private collection; formerly acquired in the early 1990s in a Hong Kong gallery.