LIAO DYNASTY (907-1125)

Compare the two similar heads of bodhisattvas dated to the eleventh century with related crowns included in the exhibition Gilded Splendor: Treasures of China's Liao Empire (907-1125), Asia Society, New York, 2006, pp. 262-65, nos. 70a and 70b. Now preserved in the Museum of Inner Mongolia and the Hohhot City Museum, respectively, both of these heads came from the Wanbu Huayanjing Pagoda in Baita Village near Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. A related stone head of a bodhisattva from the J. T. Tai Collection dated to the Liao dynasty, of approximately the same large size as the current head, was sold Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 29 April 1997, lot 708. Another similar stone head from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, of smaller size (15½ in. high), sold Sotheby's, New York, 20 March 2007, lot 510.

See, also, Zhongguo meishu quanji; diaosu bian 5; Wudai Song diaosu, Beijing, pls. 138-42, for painted clay sculptures with similar facial features and elaborate tall crowns in the Lower Huayansi in Datong, Shanxi province, which are dated to 1038.