Standing Bodhisattva

CHINA; Northern Zhou dynasty

The figure wears an ornate jeweled headdress with ribbons hanging from its sidepieces. Below the side ornamentation is an elaborate floral necklace that falls to a rosette and then divides to pass up the back. A series of beaded pendants hang from the necklace. Stoles ripple from the shoulders falling in waves down the side of the body and below the pedestal. One hand is raised, and the other hand is lowered, rhetorically gesturing rather than in recognized mudras.
The Bodhisattva stands on an inverted lotus supported on top of a four-legged stand. The abundant ornamentation, which makes this figure a rare work of Northern Zhou dynasty (557–581), contrasts strongly with the simplicity of the stand, which is of a later date.