Page 18 - Bonhams Asian Art London November 5, 2020

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 紳士藏品
6
A VERY RARE GREY LIMESTONE HEAD OF BUDDHA
SHAKYAMUNI
Tang Dynasty, Longmen Caves, 7th century AD
The smoothly carved face with meditative expression, the heavily
lidded eyes down-cast beneath elegantly arched brows, the straight
nose above gently curving lips, the hair carved as wavy curls, all
between long pendulous ears, the stone of dark-grey tone, wood
plinth stand.
38cm (15in) high. (2).

£80,000 - 120,000
CNY700,000 - 1,100,000

唐，七世紀 龍門石雕釋迦牟尼佛首像

Provenance: a French private collection
Christie’s Paris, 7 June 2011, lot 346
A UK private collection

來源：法國私人收藏
巴黎佳士得，2011年6月7日，拍品編號346
英國私人收藏

This large and strongly carved head bears features from the transitional
phase of development at the grottoes of Longmen, as the site
activity resumed after a long hiatus following the fall of the Northern
Wei dynasty. Official sponsorship and further expansion began with
renewed energy at the end of the Northern Qi to the early Tang period,
and indeed, the present head shows stylistic traces inherited from the
early Tang sculptural experimentation. The shallow carving of the eyes,
whose lids emerge in low-relief bowed lines from small rounded inner
canthi, are similar to the large heads from that site.

The Southern Binyang Cave (Cave 159), begun in the Daye reign of the
Sui dynasty, was expanded during the reigns of Taizong and Gaozong
during the Tang dynasty, and completed by AD 641. The monumental
chief pentad of Amitabha flanked by Ananda, Kasyapa and two
bodhisattvas in the Southern Binyang Cave all have large open eyelids
within squared faces with thicker flatter lips. See Complete Works of
Statues in Longmen Grottoes, vol.1: Binyang Cave, Beijing, 2002, fig.273.
As such, the present head seems to be related in proportion to the heads
of the Buddhas within the larger niches of the flanking walls. Compare
fig.288, the large right bodhisattva on the back wall, fig.317, the central
Buddha in niche 13, the largest niche on the left wall, and fig.467, the
central Buddha in niche 51, the largest niche on the right wall.

Two Longmen heads with triple-spiralled hair in the collection of the
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, are also related to the present
head. See Longmen Liusang Diaoxiang Ji, ‘The Lost Statues at
Longmen Caves’, Shanghai, 1993, figs.47 and 63, and Hai-Wai Yi-
Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture II.,
Taipei, 1990, figs.59 and 114.

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
16 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.