Page 161 - Christies Asia Week 2015 Chinese Works of Art

PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND LEOPOLD
SWERGOLD COLLECTION

2121
A STONE HEAD OF BUDDHA
TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

The soft face is carved with a small chin
below the well-delineated mouth set in
a subtle smile. The hair is carved with
radiating swirls encircling the ushnisha.
12 in. (30.5 cm.) high, metal stand

$25,000-35,000

PROVENANCE:

Acquired in Hong Kong, 1996.
Kaikodo, New York, March 2004.

The present head exhibits the same sharp,
fnely-arched brows and feshiness of the face
found in classic Tang depictions of Buddha,
including the early 8th century gilt-bronze fgure
of Vairochana at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, illustrated by D. Leidy in Wisdom Embodied,
New York, 2010, p. 97, cat. no. 16. The
protuberance found at the front of the head in
the present fgure is a purely Chinese rendering
of the Buddha’s iconography, and becomes
especially prevalent during the Tang period.
Compare with another stone fgure dated to
the Tang period, with the same confguration of
hair and protuberance, illustrated in Zhongguo
meishu quanji - Diasu Bian - 4 - Sui Tang Diaosu,
Beijing, 1988, no. 78.

唐 石雕佛頭像

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