Page 120 - September 20th 2021, Indian and Himalayan Art Christie's NYC

Property Of The Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
Sold To Benefit Future Acquisitions

PROPERTY OF THE VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, SOLD TO BENEFIT
FUTURE ACQUISITIONS
453
A SANDSTONE HEAD OF BUDDHA MUCHALINDA 泰國 華富里風格 十三世紀 砂岩雕目支鄰陀龍王首
THAILAND, LOPBURI PERIOD, 13TH CENTURY
16¡ in. (41.6 cm.) high 來源:
Frances Leigh Williams 女士 (1909-1978年)，里士滿，1936
$6,000-8,000 年以前入藏。
維吉尼亞州藝術博物館，入藏於1936年 (館藏編號36.5.1)。
PROVENANCE:
Miss Frances Leigh Williams (1909-1978), Richmond, before 1936.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, accessioned in 1936 (acc. no. 36.5.1).

The iconography of Buddha Muchalinda is taken from a specific event
in the life of Buddha Shakyamuni happening within six weeks before his
Enlightenment at Bodhgaya in North India. It tells the story of the seven-
headed serpent king Muchalinda who emerged from his subterranean
abode and extended his large hood over the meditating Buddha in order
to protect him during his meditation as a storm broke out.
The earliest images of naga-protected Buddha’s were likely made in the
service of King Jayavarman VII (1181-1218), remembered for his grand
construction of Buddhist monuments throughout the Khmer Empire.
By the thirteenth century, Buddha Muchalinda was fully incorporated
into the pantheon of Buddha’s postures, while at the same time, Lopburi
stone sculpture began to differentiate itself from Khmer stylistic norms.
Notably, as in the present example, faces became more individualized,
filled in at the cheeks, and squat. A comparable example of a Lopburi
Buddha Muchalinda, with the body surviving in full, is in the Walters
Art Gallery, Baltimore, illustrated by H.W. Woodward, Jr. in The Sacred
Sculpture of Thailand: The Alexander B. Griswold Collection: The Walters
Art Gallery, London, 1997, p. 112. The present lot appears to be scaled
slightly larger; however, they share many stylistic similarities, such as the
full face, the gently carved brows, and braided hair coiled into registers
and surmounted with an ushnisha.