Page 137 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Jades, Met Museum Irving Collection NYC

This stone head is sumptuously carved with ß eshy cheeks, broad arched brows and a large
straight nose that leads the eye down to the plump lips. Its features exemplify a crucial
sculptural transition from the linear and structured depictions of bodhisattvas in the preceding
Northern Qi (550-577) and Northern Zhou (557-581) periods to the fully rounded and ß eshy
forms of the Tang dynasty (618-907). Its oval face and idealized expression, which exude deep
spirituality, display an early attempt at naturalism, while its richly carved crown with suspended
beads and ß oral diamonds is reminiscent of the stylized aesthetic of the preceding dynasties.
The Sui dynasty uniÞ ed China in 589 after a long period of cultural, political and military
disunion, which began with the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 AD. Buddhism was seen as
a means to unify the Empire and consolidate dynastic power, hence Sui rulers began the
construction of major religious buildings and commissioned Buddhist images. While stylistically
Sui sculptures continue in the traditions established in the preceding dynasties, ‘characteristics
that were latent in the two preceding styles were brought to full blossom by Sui carvers’ (Angela
F. Howard, Chinese Sculpture, New Haven, 2006, p. 290). Osvald Siren in ‘Chinese Marble
Sculptures of the Transition Period’, BMFEA 1940, no. 12, p. 490, states that ‘The observation of
nature seems indeed to have increased as well as the mastery of the sculptural form’.
Excavations at Qingzhou, in Shandong province, have yielded Northern Qi and Sui limestone
Þ gures of bodhisattvas, with full oval faces and crowns carved with intricate diadems, pendent
tassels and articulated bands. Two standing bodhisattvas from this group are illustrated in
Masterpieces of Buddhist Statuary from Qingzhou City, Beijing, 1999, pp 132-134.
This head also shares similarities with a stone head from the Jingyatang Collection, included
in the exhibition The Art of Contemplation – Religious Sculpture from Private Collections,
National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1997, cat. no. 62, and sold in these rooms, 20th March 2018,
lot 204; two standing Þ gures illustrated in Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku Bukkyō chōkoku shiron
[Historical survey of Chinese Buddhist sculpture], Tokyo, 1995, vol. 3, pls 559 and 561; and a
Þ gure in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Denise Patry Leidy and Donna
Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New Haven, 2010, Þ g. A16. See also two standing Þ gures attributed to the Northern Qi
dynasty, in the Cincinnati Art Museum, illustrated in Ellen B. Avril, Chinese Art in the Cincinnati
Art Museum, Cincinnati, 1998, pl. 20.

CHINESE ART FROM THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: THE FLORENCE AND HERBERT IRVING GIFT 135