Canalblog
Editer l'article Suivre ce blog Administration + Créer mon blog
Publicité
Alain.R.Truong
Alain.R.Truong
Publicité
Visiteurs
Depuis la création 50 863 684
Archives
Newsletter
Alain.R.Truong
26 octobre 2017

An important and rare carved limestone head of Buddha, Tang Dynasty, 7th-8th Century, Longmen Caves

An important and rare carved limestone head of Buddha, Tang Dynasty, 7th-8th Century, Longmen Caves

Lot 95. An important and rare carved limestone head of Buddha, Tang Dynasty, 7th-8th Century, Longmen Caves. Estimate 80,000 — 100,000 USD. Lot sold 102,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

carved from a grey limestone in full rounded volumes, the oval face with slender almond shaped eyes with heavy eyelids below tapered arching eyebrows issuing from the broad nose, with a small bud mouth of full lips with lightly incised trim above a broad double chin with a thick round neck, all below the hair and domed ushnisha indicated in rounded lobes radiating from a pyramid of whorls, the surface covering the entire head deeply carved with rhythmic waves, all beneath a whitish pigment ground, (stand); 16 1/2 in., 42 cm.

Provenance: Alexander Bing Collection, New York City, (c.1920 -30s)
By descent to the present owner

Note: This head with its broad face and beautifully stylized curly hair displays the style characteristic of the Longmen caves outside Luoyang in Henan province. A similar head from Longmen, in a Japanese private collection, was included in the exhibition Chinese Buddhist Stone Sculpture: Veneration of the Sublime, Osaka Municipal Art Museum, 1995, cat.no.55; it is illustrated again in Longmen liusan diaoxiang ji, Shanghai, 1993, pl.60, together with another related head in the Tokyo National Museum, ibid., pl.65.

Compare also the head sold in these rooms, 22nd September 2004, The Arts of the Buddha, lot 24 and illustrated as frontispiece.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 31 mars 2005

Publicité
Publicité
Commentaires
Publicité