A GREY STONE HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA
A GREY STONE HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA

TANG DYNASTY, LONGMEN CAVES

Details
A GREY STONE HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA
Tang Dynasty, Longmen Caves
The long face well carved with curved mouth, straight nose and gently curving eyes below arched brows, framed by the long ears and twisted border of the hair below a tall coiled topknot centered by an amphora
18.1/8in.(48cm.) high, stand

Lot Essay

Compare the present lot with a very similar head with a central amphora in the topknot illustrated by Longmen Caves Research Institute in Longmen Liusan Diaoxiang Ji (The Lost Statues of the Longmen Caves), Shanghai, 1993, p. 63, no. 171.

Another Longmen head, with a central Buddha image instead of the amphora and very similar realization of the topknot, in the C. K. Chan Collection, is illustrated in Ancient Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Taiwan, 1989 no. 9, and again in Fojiao Diaosu Mingpin Tulu (Images of Famous Buddhist Sculpture), Beijing, 1997, p. 330, no. 310.