Seated bodhisattva

This image, usually identified as the bodhisattva Maitreya, is depicted as a slender and youthful figure. His half-closed eyes and gentle smile are meant to suggest withdrawal and compassion. Typical of the style found in the Northern Wei Buddhist caves at Longmen, his garment cascades to the floor in a series of stylized folds. On his shoulders is a scarf with ribbon ends crossing through a ring below his waist. His crown flares at the top, which further accentuates the slenderness of his body and gives the whole figure the triangular composition typical of the early 500s.