A SMALL WHITE MARBLE TORSO OF A BODHISATTVA

TANG DYNASTY, FIRST HALF 8TH CENTURY

Details

A SMALL WHITE MARBLE TORSO OF A BODHISATTVA
TANG DYNASTY, FIRST HALF 8TH CENTURY
The bodhisattva shown wearing a beaded and foliate necklace, with a shawl over the shoulders beneath trailing tresses and ribbons and a scarf that falls in a U-shaped drape across the dhoti worn over one shoulder and tied around the midriff with a knotted sash and secured by another sash at the hips, with some earth encrustation
8¼ in. (21 cm.) high, wood stand

Provenance

Mathias Komor, New York, October 1948. (The invoice states that it was excavated in the mid-1940's in Dingzhou in Hebei province).

Exhibited

Hanover, New Hampshire, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Dartmouth College, Gifts and Loans from the Mr. & Mrs. William B. Jaffe Collection of Asian Art, June 1964, no. 46.

Lot Essay

A very similar treatment of the drapery can be found on a larger white marble sculpture of a bodhisattva in the Cleveland Museum of Art illustrated by S. Matsubara, Chuugoku bukkyo chokokushi ron (The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture), vol. 3, Tang, Five Dynasties, Sung and Taoism Sculpture, Tokyo, 1995, no. 693. The Cleveland sculpture is dated to the early 8th century and attributed to Hebei province. A white marble figure of a seated bodhisattva in the collection of the Shanghai Museum included in the exhibition, Compassion and Fascination, The Chinese Civilisation Centre of City University of Hong Kong, 2003, p. 99, fig. 4, exhibits the same depiction of the dhoti worn over one shoulder and tied around the midriff, but only the Hall figure has the dhoti worn over the necklace.

More from The Collection of Evelyn Annenberg Hall: Fine Chinese

View All