A painted stucco head of Avalokitesvara

SONG DYNASTY

Details

A painted stucco head of Avalokitesvara
Song Dynasty
The bodhisattva modelled with strongly outlined facial features, the aqualine nose continuing in raised curving eyebrows, full lips and downcast expression, the hair tied neatly under a high tiara with flaming points and centered by the Amitabha Buddha, long ears set with earrings, a recepticle for the urna, the face covered in white slip, facial details picked out in black and red, the hair black, the tiara and earrings in gilt over red (minor damage)
56 cm high, wood stand

Lot Essay

For related stucco heads and statuary, compare the cave temples of the Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang, where hundreds of grottoes dating from the Sixteen States period (304-439) to the Yuan Dyansty (1271-1368) are still extant. For numerous examples see The Art of Dunhuang Hong Kong, 1981. For an earlier example, cf. R. Whitfield & A. Farrer, Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, p.181, pl.151.

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