Page 27 - Christies Indian and Himalayan Art IRVING collection Sept 24 2020 NYC

THE PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED WEST COAST
COLLECTOR
715
AN ANDESITE HEAD OF BUDDHA
INDONESIA, CENTRAL JAVA,
9TH-10TH CENTURY
16 in. (40.6 cm.) high
$30,000-50,000
PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Netherlands, by 21 May 1981.
Christie's Paris, 21 June 2016, lot 32.

The facial features of this finely-carved andesite
head share physiognomic elements inspired by
the preceding Gupta artistic tradition of Northern
India, such as the well-defined nose and snail-shell
curls covering both the head and ushnisha. This
remarkable head also closely resembles the manifold
transcendental buddhas which adorn the great stupa
of Borobudur in Central Java, created in the early
ninth century under the Shailendra dynasty.
Compare the precise execution of the stylized,
right-whorled snail-shell curls, the enigmatic smile
and the powerful, square jaw with another ninth-
century andesite Javanese head of Buddha from
the collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, sold
at Christie’s New York, 17 March 2015, lot 23,
illustrated below.
For a further related example, see P. Pal, A Collecting
Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian
Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection,
Chicago, 1997, p. 104, cat. no. 126.

An important stone head of Buddha; Indonesia,
central Java, 9th century; 15 ¾ in. (39.9 cm.) high;
The Collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth,
Christie’s New York, 17 March 2015, sold for US
$509,000.