Song Fazhi

CHINA; Tang dynasty

Song Fazhi was a painter and sculptor who was part of a famous trio of artists that included Wu Zhimin and An Sheng, all of whom were well-known for carving extremely lifelike statues.
Accompanying Wang Xuance, Song traveled to India in 643. During their voyage, they stopped in Magadha to make reference paintings of the statues. The samples were brought back to Chang’an (present day Xi’an, Shaanxi) and used for the sculpting of the Maha Bodhi Tree. The sculptors who worked in Guangyuan Thousand Buddha Cliff Rock Carvings Cave 366 are said to have followed and based their designs on these samples images.
According to the Biography of Master Xuanzang, in 664, before Master Xuanzang passed away, he commissioned Song to carve a Bodhi Figure. Famous Paintings in History also indicated that during the following year, he directed the sculpting of the Maitreya Buddha statue under the Bodhi tree at Jing’ai Temple in Henan. The construction of this statue followed the image samples brought back from India.