RARE TETE DE GUANYIN EN CALCAIRE GRIS

For characteristic stylised headdresses typical of this period, cf. a figure of Bodhisattva, part of a central image on a votive stele from the Simon Kwan Collection, included in the exhibition, In the Footsteps of the Buddha: An Iconic Journey from India to China, Hong Kong, 1998, illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 313, no. 101; a carved limestone head of Bodhisattva from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated in Hai-wai Yi-chen, Chinese Art in Oversea Collections: Buddhist Sculpture, Taipei, 1990, p. 64, no. 59; and standing figure with hands in abhaya and varada gestures in the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated by Matsubara Saburo, Chugoku Bukkyo Chokoku Silun, Japan, 1995, vol. II, p. 376.
See also a very similar head of Guanyin from Northern Qi period, sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 29 October 2001, lot 504.