J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Two Thousand Years of Chinese Sculpture
March 17-29, 2008
12.
A MONUMENTAL STONE HEAD OF BUDDHA
Tang Dynasty, early 8th Century
from the Buddhist cave-temples at Longmen, Henan province, carved in three-quarter relief with full rounded features set in an expression of quiet solemnity, the eyes downcast under heavy eyelids curving gently downwards at the center and protruding beneath ridged eyebrows which curve into the bridge of the nose, the plump cheeks smoothly rounded and the small mouth with full lips still showing traces of pigment, the hair carved in vigorous swirling curls and wavy lines across the forehead and with one spiral curl on the front of the high rounded usnisa on top of the head, the ears simply carved with long pendulous lobes, the back of the head sheared off roughly where it was formerly joined to the cave wall, the dark gray schist showing streaked patina over the carved surface and appearing darker in the uncarved areas.
Height 15 1⁄2 inches (39.5 cm)
From the Collection of Sir Rudolf Bing
Formerly in the Collection of Dikran Kelekian
Illustrated: Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, London, 1925, pl. 465D.
Published: Longmen Shiku Yanjiusuo (Longmen Stone Cave Research Institute), Longmen Liusan Diaoxiang Ji (Album of Dispersed Sculptures from Longmen), Shanghai People’s Art Press, 1993, p. 58, no. 66, designated as from an American Private Collection.
A very similarly carved stone head of Buddha excavated from the Fengxian Temple site in 2000 is illustrated in a recent Longmen Museum catalogue entitled Longmen bowuguan cangpin (Collection of the Longmen Museum), Zhengzhou, 2005, no. 20 and was previously illustrated in the Miho Museum exhibition catalogue, Longmen Caves, Shigaraki, 2001, p. 86, no. 44. Another stone head of Buddha from the Longmen caves, carved in the same style, from the Yamaguchi Collection, now in the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, is illustrated in the same Miho Museum Longmen Caves catalogue, ibid, p. 58, no. 30, dated to the beginning of the 8th century.
Compare also the Longmen stone heads of Buddha illustrated in Longmen Liusan Diaoxiang Ji (Album of Dispersed Sculptures from Longmen), Shanghai People’s Art Press, 1993, p. 55, no. 63, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and p. 56, no. 64, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, from the Avery Brundage Collection.
唐 龍門 青石如來頭像 高 39.5 厘米
12.
A MONUMENTAL STONE HEAD OF BUDDHA
Tang Dynasty, early 8th Century
Height 15 1⁄2 inches (39.5 cm)