Page 73 - Christies Alsdorf Collection Part 1 Sept 24 2020 NYC

a mandorla is a full-body halo.) The halo of a large that style’s descent from Northern Qi sculptures of the
Buddha, like that from which the present head came, sixth century while incorporating features that signal
might have been carved in stone or might have been the emergence of a new style that anticipates the
painted on the wall behind the figure. Such integration sculpture of the Tang dynasty. This simply yet brilliantly
of painting and sculpture was a characteristic feature of composed sculpture focuses attention on the Buddha’s
traditional Buddhist temples. serene countenance and compassionate expression.
In perfect harmony, the elegant style and clear statement
Published as early as 1925, this elegant, refined Buddha of purpose—the preaching of wisdom and compassion—
head is a masterpiece of Chinese Buddhist sculpture. combine to make this a masterwork of Chinese
It perfectly represents the Sui-dynasty style, illustrating Buddhist sculpture.

ENDNOTES

1 See: Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku Bukkyō Chōkoku Shiron [The Path of Magazine Ltd.), May 2002, vol. 34, no. 5, p. 50, fig. 5; Li Yuqun and Li
Chinese Buddhist Sculpture], vol. 2 Nanbokuchō kōki · Zui [Later Six Gang, eds., Tianlongshan shiku [Tianlongshan Grottoes], 1st edition
Dynasties and Sui] (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan), 1995, p. 496; also (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe), 2003.
see: Wladimir Zwalf, Buddhism: Art and Faith (London: British Museum 14 See: Leidy, Strahan, Wisdom Embodied, 2010, pp. 96-98, no. 16.
Publications), 1985, p. 287; J. Rawson, The British Museum Book of 15 See: Matsubara, Chūgoku Bukkyō Chōkoku Shiron, vol. 2 Nanbokuchō
Chinese Art (London: British Museum Publications), 1992, fig. 106.
kōki · Zui, pp. 497-498.
2 See: Matsubara, Chūgoku Bukkyō Chōkoku Shiron, vol. 2 Nanbokuchō kōki
16 The urna is variously termed guanghao, yuhao, baihao, and suhao in
· Zui, p. 495; also see: T. Allen Heinrich, Art Treasures in the Royal Ontario Chinese; the ray of light issuing from the urna is generally termed mei
Museum (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart), 1963. jian bai hao xiang. In fact, many Hindu deities indeed have a third eye
3 See: Matsubara, Chūgoku Bukkyō Chōkoku Shiron, vol. 2 Nanbokuchō kōki
at the center of the forehead, but Buddhist deities, and particularly
· Zui, pp. 493-494. the Buddhas, have a magical curl of hair between the eyebrows. The
4 See: D. Patry Leidy, D. Strahan et al., Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist urna is one of the thirty-two special physical characteristics of the
and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: Buddha, known as the Thirty-Two Signs of a Great Man. This refers
Metropolitan Museum of Art; and New Haven, CT, and London: Yale to the laksana-vyanjana, known in Chinese as the xianghao, with xiang
University Press), 2010, pp. 75-78, no. 9. denoting the thirty-two major marks, and hao the eighty secondary signs
5 See: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/131/standing-bodhisattva-china on the physical body of Buddha.
17 For information on the Mogao cave temples at Dunhuang and their
6 See: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/13969
sculptures, see: Fan Jinshi, The Caves of Dunhuang (Hong Kong:
7 For an Eastern Wei sculpture with such eyes, see the 543-dated stele in
Dunhuang Academy in collaboration with London Editions), 2010;
the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum, Boston: Alan Chong, ed., Eye of
the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Fan Jinshi, The Art of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang: A Journey into
(Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), 2003, pp. 180-182. For China’s Buddhist Shrine, 1st English edition (Paramus, NJ: Homa &
a Northern Qi sculpture with such eyes, see the Standing Buddha in Sekey Books), 2009.
the Shanxi Provincial Museum, Taiyuan: Matsubara, Chūgoku Bukkyō 18 For examples of Northern Qi and Sui stone sculptures from Qingzhou
Chōkoku Shiron, vol. 2 Nanbokuchō kōki · Zui, pp. 456-457. that retain much of their original pigment and gilding, see Lukas
8 For examples of Eastern Wei and Northern Qi sculptures with large, Nickel, ed., Return of the Buddha: The Qingzhou Discoveries (London:
domical ushnishas, see the sculptures in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Royal Academy of Arts), 2002; Masterpieces of Buddhist Statuary from
Museum, Boston, and in the Shanxi Provincial Museum, Taiyuan, Qingzhou City (Beijing: National Museum of Chinese History / Beijing
mentioned in endnote 4. Chinasight Fine Arts Co., Ltd.), 1999.
19 See: J.J. Lally & Co., Buddhist Sculpture from Ancient China: March 10 -
9 See, for example, the second-century, dark gray stone Buddha Head from
31, 2017 (New York: J.J. Lally & Co.), 2017, cat. no. 15.
ancient Gandhara now in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums,
Cambridge, MA (1998.315): M. B. Cohn and S. Kianovsky, Lois Orswell, 20 See: O. Sirén, “Chinese Marble Sculptures of the Transition Period”,
David Smith, and Modern Art (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Stockholm, Sweden:
Museums), 2002, pp. 162-163, 365, cat. no. 331, fig. 74. Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities), 1940, no. 12, pp. 486-487, plate
10 See: Matsubara, Chūgoku Bukkyō Chōkoku Shiron, vol. 2 Nanbokuchō kōki V b; Max Loehr, “Aesthetic Delight: An Anthology of Far Eastern Art”,
Apollo (London, England), May 1978, new series, vol. 107, no. 195,
· Zui, pp. 491-492.
pp. 414-421 (and cover, caption on p. 355).
11 See: https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/
21 See: K. A. Mortimer and W. G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art
object/204428?position=0
Museums: A Guide to the Collections (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
12 See: D. W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a
University Art Museums; and New York: Abbeville Press), 1986, p. 26,
Collector (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum), 1969, pp. 78-79, no. 066; no. 20.
Matsubara, Chūgoku Bukkyō Chōkoku Shiron, vol. 2 Nanbokuchō kōki ·
Zui, p. 444. 22 See: O. Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth
13 See: Leidy, Strahan, Wisdom Embodied, 2010, p. 99, fig. 77; S. Wolohojian, Century: Over 900 Specimens in Stone, Bronze, Lacquer and Wood,
Principally from Northern China (London: E. Benn), 1925, vol. 2, p. 136,
ed., Handbook / Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Art pl. 503; Gillerman, Grenville L. Winthrop, 1969, pp. 90-91, no. 72.
Museums), 2008, p. 35; Li Yuqun, “A New Understanding of the Tang
Dynasty Grottoes at Tianlongshan,” Orientations (Hong Kong: Orientations
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