Lot 88. A magnificent and monumental stone head of Buddha, Tang dynasty (618-907). Estimate 350,000 — 450,000 USD. Lot sold 352,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

the plump face finely carved with almost perfectly symmetrical features imparting the buff sandstone with a serene vitality, the eyebrows rising across the broad brow in smooth curves issuing from the low bridge of the nose above globular nostrils, the deeply-set large eyes half-closed under heavy lids sweeping in bowstring curves, the full cheeks drawn into the delicately shaped mouth above the rounded double-chin, flanked with backswept ears ending in fragmentary pendulous lobes, all beneath a tier of overlapping folds of hair combed in rising and falling waves around a flattened hemispherical bun, each set with tight whorls representing the ushnisha; 42 1/8 in., 107 cm.

Provenance: From an Important Asian Collection
Sotheby's London, June 19, 1999, lot 738.

Note: This head, with its perfectly even, idealised features, is remarkable not only for its size, but also for its exquisite manner of carving and represents a prime example of the mature style of the High Tang. Comparable sculptures are hard to find, particularly of this size, since it would most likely have been a monumental figure when intact, and therefore presumably from an important complex. Compare a massive crowned figure of Vairocana from the Leigutai Caves at Longmen, Henan province, exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, China. Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750AD, 2004, cat.no.192, which, at 2.40 meters, is perhaps half the size the present lot would originally have been. The long elongated eyes on the Longmen figure and the present head are both characteristic of the High Tang style circa 700AD, although the fine-grained reddish sandstone on the present head indicates a different regional site.