3 | A WOOD HEAD OF A LOUHAN Yuan dynasty 14th century AD China The louhan's benign expression is captured with a half smiling mouth, fleshy cheeks and a kindly, concentrated look in the eyes - above which, at the centre of the forehead, is a raised urna. The hollow carved head, neck and collar terminate in an octagonal, plain sided, wedge shaped base - as if intended to slot into the main body of a sculpture. The wood is covered with a coarse cloth - a characteristic of late Song and Yuan wood sculpture; it was used as a medium for attaching the painted gesso surface (now worn away). Height: 15 ¾" / 40 cm Similar example: 'Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculptures', Kodansha, Tokyo 1974, fig. 142 - from the collection of the Avery Brundage Museum, San Francisco. An almost identical Louhan head from the series is exhibited in the Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Germany. Another wood head from the same series was sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong: 29th April 1997 - lot 717, from the collection of J.T.Tai.