Page 389 - Chinese Art Auction April 25, 2020 2020 Galerie Zacke

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A VeRy lARge ANdesITe sTATue OF buddhA,
INdONesIA, ceNTRAl JAVA, 9Th ceNTuRy

Buddha is seated in padmasana on a raised base with the left hand
in his lap. His eyes are downcast as he radiates an intense meditative
expression. While several Buddha heads from this period were
recorded in recent years, a complete statue must be considered as
extremely rare.

Provenance: Baron Alex Torri, Italy. An Italian private collector,
acquired from the above between 1998-2002.
condition: Losses, erosion, wear and extensive weathering, overall
consistent with the high age of this statue. The condition can be seen in
detail on the various images available at www.zacke.at.
Weight: 133 kg
Dimensions: Height 74.5 cm

A buddha image of ineffable quiet and stillness has been carved from
rough volcanic rock. The profile and dome of the head are broad, allowing
for a round tapering of the forehead, cheeks, and chin that, once finished
with a polish, produce an overall impression of smoothness, belying the
porous nature of the stone, which has resisted over a millennium of
weather exposure with a stunning ease. The sculptors working on the great
stone monuments of 9th century Central Java produced some of the most
beautifully proportioned Buddhist sculptures of any period or medium.
The present statue is almost certainly from borobudur or a related
temple site, such as Sewu or Ngawen in Central Java. Built by the Shailendra
dynasty around 825 CE, Borobudur is one of the greatest Buddhist
monuments of all time, having one of the largest and most complete
ensembles of Buddhist narrative relief panels in the world. Structured as a
mandala of stacked platforms representing the three planes of existence
in Mahayana cosmology (the world of desire, the world of forms, and the
world of formlessness), Borobodur invites pilgrims circumambulating its
didactic panels and sculpture to shuck the trappings of their perceived
reality and realize their true inherent formlessness.

the Borobodur temple site today
Literature comparison: Three examples in the British Museum collected
by Sir Thomas Stamford raffles in the early 19th century demonstrate
that not all Borobudur Buddha heads (and statues) were created equal
(1859,1228.175, 1859,1228.176, 1859,1228.177). Some have softer, more
delicate brows while others show harder features and more pronounced
monobrows. Some have spire-like ushnishas, while others are broader
and more pleasing. Of the three British Museum heads, it is the most
celebrated and widely exhibited one (1859,1228.176) that bears the closest
resemblance to the present lot, illuminating its quality.
estimate euR 20.000,-
Starting price EUr 10.000,-

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