Page 135 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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Five Dynasties 907-960 Buddhistic objects begin to be in decadence…Sculptures lose

their beauty… the sculptures are in definite decadence and ended in the Song dynasties

(960-1280).” (C. T. Loo 1937)

This evolutional pattern was reflected in Loo’s dealing. According to Loo, the finest

examples of Chinese stone sculpture could be found from the sixth to the ninth century

(Loo 1940, Preface). Pieces dated the Northern Wei dynasty (386–535 ACE), Sui dynasty

(589–618 ACE), and Tang dynasty (618–907 ACE) constituted the core of Loo’s

sculpture collection. They were promoted as representatives of archaic, transitional, and

classical periods, corresponding to the stages in the development of ancient Greek art.

Wei pieces in Loo’s collection with their geometrical form and smiling faces were

likened to Greek sculptures of the archaic period. Loo’s 1940 catalogue, An Exhibition of

Chinese Stone Sculptures, described the smiles of Wei figures, “Smiling benevolence

finds adequate expression in large squarish faces. The mouth follows a formula with

small lips lifted upwards at the corners, with notches in the chin and eyes which close or

gaze emptily to give a dreamy contemplative expression.” (C. T. Loo and Company

1940a, Wei) A Bodhisattva from Yungang cave temple, dating to the Wei dynasty and

displayed at Loo’s 1936 exhibition, was compared to Greek and medieval art in the

exhibition review, “Its archaic smile, slight swing of the body, and anatomical

divergences are familiar to us from early Greece and mediaeval Europe of the twelfth

century.” (Davidson 1936, 12) (Fig. 38 ) Loo turned the Wei sculptures’ affinity to Greek

art, especially the “archaic smile” into a selling point. In 1922 Loo offered the MFA a

Northern Wei statue of Maitreya with Aureola, dated 528 A.C.E. Loo’s description of the