Seated Buddha with Two Attendants

This Buddha triad is small in scale, and carved with an extremely intricate carving style. Kouka, the yellow spotted limestone, is known to have been quarried near Xi’an, Shaanxi province, and is a brightly toned stone with a slight yellowish cast. The stone was frequently used for sculptures from the Northern Wei dynasty through the Sui and Tang dynasties. This sculpture is a typical example of small-scale Buddhist sculptures created from this type of stone from the end of the Northern Wei dynasty through the Western Wei dynasty.