A
STONE HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA
Tang dynasty
9th century AD
China
This monumental grey stone head has an expression
that invokes a mood of peace and serenity. With
full half-smiling lips, delicately carved and outlined,
the face is fleshy, and the nose and eyebrows sharply
delineated - the latter with raised high arches.
The eyes are heavy lidded, and the ears have carefully
carved and pendulous lobes (one is missing). The
hair is neatly combed up in coils into a high top
knot - the front of which is decorated by a pearl
below a flame like diadem of scrolling leaves around
two jewel stones.
Height: 19” / 48 cm
Provenance: The Desmond Gure Collection
The Raymond Sackler Collection
Similar example: ‘Chinese
Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries’
by Osvald Siren, Paris and Brussels 1926 - Tome
III, plate 463. This standing Bodhisattva is most
probably from Lung Men and exhibits many of the
same characteristics. The shape of the head itself
is fleshy and rather elongated, but not plump.
The brows, eyelids and nose are carved with the
same sharp lines associated with Lung Men sculpture,
while the front of the high topknot is also decorated
with a floral ornament.
‘Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture’,
The Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum
of San Francisco, Kodansha 1974 - figure 104,
106, and 110. These three heads are attributed
to the Lung Men grottoes and the sophisticated
sculpture produced there during the 8th century
- under the influence of the Tang dynasty Empress
Wu Tse-Tien.
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