LIAO-JIN DYNASTY (AD 907-1234)

This spectacular head of Buddha is exceptional for its large size, powerful, bold carving, and for being carved from marble, since most large-scale Buddhist sculpture from the Liao-Jin period (AD 907-1234) was carved from wood. The prominent brows, long, slender eyes slanting upward from the well-defined nose, relatively small, crisply carved mouth, prominent curls of hair, large urna, high cheek bones and fleshy cheeks are all characteristics of Buddhist sculptures from the Liao-Jin period. The present head bears a strong resemblance to the head of a painted marble figure of seated Buddha dated to the Tang-Liao dynasties (AD 618-907) from the Irving Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 21 March 2019, lot 1225. The shape of the face, mouth, nose, and eyes of the present head are also very similar to that of the the monumental stucco head of Buddha dated to the Liao dynasty sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 2 April 2019, lot 3050, as well as to the important large polychrome wood figure of seated Guanyin of Jin-dynasty date sold at Christie’s Paris, 9 June 2021, lot 17, and the large polychrome wood figure of Shakyamuni Buddha dated to the Jin dynasty included in the National Museum of History, Taipei, exhibition, The Splendour of Buddhist Statuaries. Chinese Buddhist Wooden Sculpture from Sung and Yuan Dynasties, 1997, pp. 34-7, and subsequently sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2019, lot 3629.

See, also, two seated marble figures of Buddha, dated to the Liao dynasty, from the collection of General Munthe, Beijing, illustrated by Osvald Sirén in Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vol. II, pls. 584 A and B. These two Liao-dynasty figures display a similar treatment of the elaborate whorl-detailed curls seen on the hair of the present head.