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Lot Essay
A photograph taken of Cave 18 at Tianlongshan, near Taiyuan in Shanxi province around 1920 and illustrated by Tonomura Tajiro, Tenryuzan sekkutsu, Tokyo, 1922, pl. 77, shows a very similar looking bodhisattva. The figure stands against the east wall at the far right (south end) of a pentad that includes a central seated Buddha with two seated and two standing bodhisattvas. The head was already missing. A fine bust of a bodhisattva in Nezu Museum, which has been identified as originating from the same cave, has the same configuration of jewelry and diagonal draping of the scarf across the chest as the current figure. See H. Vanderstappen and M. Rhie, "The Sculpture of T'ien Lung Shan: Reconstruction and Dating", Artibus Asiae, vol. 27 (1966), p. 205. It is possible that the Nezu bust and the body of this bodhisattva are from the same sculptural image.
Compare a standing bodhisattva in the Seattle Museum of Art, missing its head, which is attributed to the east wall of Cave 18, ibid., p. 206, illustrated in, Arts of the Tang Dynasty, Los Angeles County Museum, 1957, fig. 35. A bust of a bodhisattva with draped scarves and jewelry very similar to those of the Nezu bust is in the Cleveland Museum of Art. It is believed to be from Tianlongshan Cave 6. See Vanderstappen and Rhie, op.cit., fig. 15; and Hai-wai yi-chen: Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture, vol. II, Taipei, 1990, pl. 123. The separation of the heads and bodies of figures is commonly seen among the surviving sculptures from Tianlongshan. The body of another bodhisattva, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, can be identified as being from Cave 21. The head was formerly in the Staatliche Museum, Berlin.
Compare a standing bodhisattva in the Seattle Museum of Art, missing its head, which is attributed to the east wall of Cave 18, ibid., p. 206, illustrated in, Arts of the Tang Dynasty, Los Angeles County Museum, 1957, fig. 35. A bust of a bodhisattva with draped scarves and jewelry very similar to those of the Nezu bust is in the Cleveland Museum of Art. It is believed to be from Tianlongshan Cave 6. See Vanderstappen and Rhie, op.cit., fig. 15; and Hai-wai yi-chen: Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture, vol. II, Taipei, 1990, pl. 123. The separation of the heads and bodies of figures is commonly seen among the surviving sculptures from Tianlongshan. The body of another bodhisattva, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, can be identified as being from Cave 21. The head was formerly in the Staatliche Museum, Berlin.