Details
A POLYCHROME STONE HEAD OF BODHISATTVA
TANG DYNASTY, FROM THE LONGMEN CAVES

The full face well carved with contemplative expressive below the crisp arched brows, the hair pulled back and bound in sections over the pendulous ears and gathered into a large, coiled topknot above a circular plaque with a protruding boss, traces of coloured pigments remaining
11 3/4 in. (29.8 cm.) high, wood stand

Lot Essay

Compare the present lot with a very similar example, a carving of Avalokitesvara, originally part of the left standing figure at the Fuoding cave, now in the C.K. Chan collection, illustrated in Lost Statues of the Longmen Cave, p. 72, no. 79. Cf. a larger example (52 cm.) with a lotus diadem and also applied with pigments, from the Liangsheng Tang collection, illustrated in The Art of Contemplation, p. 181, no. 76. As well as a related example is illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. II, 1976, no. 145.

(US$90,000-120,000)

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