A LARGE GRAY STONE HEAD OF BUDDHA

Details

A LARGE GRAY STONE HEAD OF BUDDHA
MING DYNASTY

The round face well carved with gentle, almost smiling expression, the hair neatly arranged in tight curls around the low, domed usnisa and parted at the forehead above the projecting urna, his full cheeks and fleshy chin framed by large, pendulous ear lobes, the brownish-gray stone with traces of orange, blue, black and white pigment
17½in. (44.6cm.) high, black base

Lot Essay

Stylistically, in the heavy fleshiness of the face and the bald flat oval area beneath the usnisa, this head can be related to the Ming glazed stoneware figure of Buddha, possibly from Shanxi, in the Avery Brundage Collection, illustrated by René-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argencé in Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture, Japan, 1974, p. 318, no. 170