
Gilt bronze
This statue was discovered at the site of Longhua Temple in 1983. It depicts Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna Buddhas seated side by side and sharing one mandorla. Another seated Buddha is suspended above them. The style of the figures, with their domed hairpieces, is very simple. The nimbuses are presented as radiating circles engraved into the surface of the mandorla, which is otherwise filled with a whirling flame pattern. The mandorla is leaf shaped and supported on a four-legged stand, where there is an inscription that dates the work to the year 500 of the Northern Wei dynasty and names Shi Jingzhi as the person who commissioned it.
For more details, go to the Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture G-M, page 618.