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    Sale 5567

    Art d'Asie

    Paris

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    10 June 2009

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    Lot 189

    BUSTE DE LUOHAN EN BOIS

    CHINE, DYNASTIE SONG, XIEME/XIIEME SIECLE

    Price realised

    EUR 49,000

    Estimate

    EUR 30,000 - EUR 35,000

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    BUSTE DE LUOHAN EN BOIS
    CHINE, DYNASTIE SONG, XIEME/XIIEME SIECLE
    Vêtu d'une robe monastique, le visage sévère, le crâne rasé, la bouche boudeuse, encadrée d'une petite barbe, le nez légèrement épaté, les yeux enfoncés sous des sourcils broussailleux traités sous forme de volutes, traces de polychromie ; manques
    Hauteur: 45 cm. (17¾ in.)

    Provenance

    Collection Alexander Foerster, Vienna. Acquired in 1926 from Anton Exner, Vienna. Since then in the family from where acquired by the present owner.

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    Lot Essay

    The figure to which this head once belonged would most likely have been part of a set of nearly life size luohans, each one with a different face. For such a pair of wood figures in complete state of preservation also dating to the Song dynasty, representing luohan Ananda and luohan Mahakasyapa, compare Kunsthaus Lempertz, Asiatische Kunst, Auktion 892, Koeln, 9./10. Juni 2006, Nr. 146. A similarly proportioned wood head of an luohan with gentle expression that still retains its original polychrome painted cloth covering was sold in our New York Rooms, 20 September 2005, lot 144. Another wood head of an elderly luohan from the Song dynasty with exaggerated features, laughing expression and bushy brows in the Avery Bundage collection, illustrated by Lefebvre d'Argencé, Chinese, Korean and Japanese sculpture, Asian Art Museum San Francisco, 1974, pp. 270-271, Nr. 142.

    Other information

    Special Notice

    No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT payable at 19.6% (5.5% for books) will be added to the buyer’s premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis


    Post Lot Text

    A WOOD BUST OF A LUOHAN
    CHINA, SONG DYNASTY, 11TH/12TH CENTURY


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