Northern Wei Sculpture

Northern Wei sculpture, Chinese sculpture, dating from the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534/535 ce) of the Six Dynasties, that represents the first major Buddhist influence on Chinese art. Produced in the northern territory that was occupied and ruled by foreign invaders and that was quick to respond to Buddhism, Northern Wei sculpture is distinct from the more traditional indigenous art produced in the south, which was ruled by native Chinese dynasties.

Few examples of Northern Wei sculpture survive from before about 450 ce. From 446 to 452, Buddhism was under attack; it was quickly restored to favour, however, and there followed a major period of Buddhist art featuring various iconographic types, with simple images of the Buddha predominating. Northern Wei sculpture may be divided into two major periods: the first from immediately following the persecution to 494, when the capital of the Northern Wei was moved from the northern city of Pingcheng (the present Datong, Shanxi province) to the ancient centre of Chinese civilization, Luoyang (Henan province); and the second from 494 to the end of the Northern Wei period. The style of the first period is a curious amalgam of foreign influences that is ultimately traceable to the Buddhist art of India; this work emphasizes the heavy stylization of blocky volumes, giving a certain naive and archaic quality to the figures, as seen in the Yungang caves. While this style did not disappear entirely, it was ultimately replaced in the second phase of Northern Wei sculpture by a very different Chinese, or Longmen, style, which clothes the Buddha in the costume of the Chinese scholar. The latter style emphasizes a svelte and sinuous cascade of drapery falling over an increasingly flattened figure, as seen in the Longmen caves.