Page 261 - Christie's Asia Week March 2024 Chinese Art

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART INCLUDING THE COLLECTION OF DOROTHY TAPPER GOLDMAN

(additional views)

The Property of a Lady
1147
A RARE LARGE MARBLE HEAD OF BUDDHA 女史珍藏
LIAO-JIN DYNASTY (AD 907-1234) 唐 遼 ⊅雕ζ首
Ϝ源
15q in. (39.4 cm.) high, composite base
紐☼ωૈ得，1991年11月27日，拍品編號21
$120,000-180,000
PROVENANCE:
Christie’s New York, 27 November 1991, lot 21.

This spectacular head of Buddha is exceptional for its large size, as to the important large polychrome wood figure of seated Guanyin
powerful, bold carving, and for being carved from marble, since most of Jin-dynasty date sold at Christie’s Paris, 9 June 2021, lot 17, and
large-scale Buddhist sculpture from the Liao-Jin period (AD 907- the large polychrome wood figure of Shakyamuni Buddha dated to
1234) was carved from wood. The prominent brows, long, slender eyes the Jin dynasty included in the National Museum of History, Taipei,
slanting upward from the well-defined nose, relatively small, crisply exhibition, The Splendour of Buddhist Statuaries. Chinese Buddhist
carved mouth, prominent curls of hair, large urna, high cheek bones Wooden Sculpture from Sung and Yuan Dynasties, 1997, pp. 34-7, and
and fleshy cheeks are all characteristics of Buddhist sculptures from subsequently sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2019, lot 3629.
the Liao-Jin period. The present head bears a strong resemblance to
the head of a painted marble figure of seated Buddha dated to the See, also, two seated marble figures of Buddha, dated to the Liao
Tang-Liao dynasties (AD 618-907) from the Irving Collection, sold at dynasty, from the collection of General Munthe, Beijing, illustrated by
Christie’s New York, 21 March 2019, lot 1225. The shape of the face, Osvald Sirén in Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth
mouth, nose, and eyes of the present head are also very similar to Century, vol. II, pls. 584 A and B. These two Liao-dynasty figures
that of the the monumental stucco head of Buddha dated to the Liao display a similar treatment of the elaborate whorl-detailed curls seen on
dynasty sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 2 April 2019, lot 3050, as well the hair of the present head.

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