A VERY RARE FINELY-CARVED WHITE MARBLE HEAD OF A LOKAPALA

Details

A VERY RARE FINELY-CARVED WHITE MARBLE HEAD OF A LOKAPALA
TANG DYNASTY

Very finely carved, the face with half-closed eyes below an arched brow, with rounded cheeks and parted lips above a dimpled chin, the helmet embellished with raised florettes and a scalloped and beaded strap extending from the forehead to the nape, tied below the chin under each ear (nose repaired)--10¾in. (27.4cm.) high, stand

Provenance

Believed to have come from the Jincheng Temple, Xian, Shaanxi province
Jay C. Leff
The Works of Art Collection of the British Rail Pension Fund

Exhibited

Exhibition of Exotic Art from Ancient and Primitive Civilizations: Collection of Jay. C. Leff, Carnegie Institue, Pittsburgh, PA 1959-1960, Catalogue, no. 838
Travelling Exhibition of Exotic Art: Selections from the Jay C. Leff Collection, The American Federation of Arts, Catalogue, no. 100
On loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1977-1988

Lot Essay

Marble carvings of this subject are rare. However, an elaborate marble figure of a fully-armoured Lokapala missing a head in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, Xian, also dating to the mid 8th Century, is illustrated by Akiyama and Matsubara, Arts of China: Buddhist Cave Temples, pl. 55

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