J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York

10.
A MONUMENTAL LIMESTONE HEAD OF THE BODHISATTVA

Sui Dynasty (A.D. 581 - 618)

with finely carved features set in a serene benevolent expression, the elegantly elongated eyes under half-closed fleshly eyelids and arched eyebrows defined by deep grooves and raised narrow ridges, the long straight nose with rounded nostrils above full pursed lips with sharply angled edges, the deity’s hair dressed in a neat row of smoothly rounded graduated curls across the forehead and piled into a bun behind an elaborate bejeweled diadem centered with a fluted ovoid vase surrounded by scroll motifs and lotus blooms above a rosette centering a narrow band decorated with pairs of raised medallions with ‘pearl’ borders below larger oval medallions with matching borders, tied at the sides with ribbons hanging down behind the ears with long, grooved lobes, the back of the head smoothly finished and centered with a small rectangular slot to receive the tenon for a halo, the stone with mottled pale gray surface evenly degraded from burial and with some darker staining, primarily on the back.

Height 13 ¹⁄₂ inches (34.3 cm)

隋  石菩薩頭像  高 34.3 厘米