A FINE LIMESTONE HEAD OF BUDDHA, LATE NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY, 6TH CENTURY
Lot 346 - FAS1025

Expert authentication: Dr. Chang Qing has authenticated this lot, identifying its iconographic and stylistic characteristics as typical of late Northern Wei dynasty images found in Henan province of northern China. A notarized copy of Dr. Chang’s expertise, in the State of New York, accompanies this lot.
Dr. Chang holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Kansas and has held prestigious positions, including post-doctoral fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and senior research fellow at the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institute. He has conducted extensive research in China, participating in archaeological excavations at various historical sites. Dr. Chang is the author of several influential works, including Compassionate Beings in Metal and Stone: Chinese Buddhist Sculptures from The Freer Gallery of Art (2016) and Light of the Buddha in the Desert: Essays on Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang from 5th-14th Centuries (2012). He is currently a professor at Arts College, Sichuan University.

China. Finely carved with a serene yet joyful expression, the face distinguished by heavy-lidded eyes beneath elegantly arched brows, a slender nose, and a sharply defined mouth forming a calm smile. The bow-shaped lips and prominent philtrum are carefully detailed, flanked by large ears with pendulous lobes. The hair is arranged in tight curls rising over a high, domed ushnisha.

Provenance: From a private collection in New York, United States.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Expected wear, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations, obvious losses, structural fissures, nicks, chips, scratches.

Weight: 13.7 kg (incl. stand), 16.1 kg (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 32.8 cm (excl. stand), 43.5 cm (incl. stand).

With an associated metal stand. (2)

Buddhist stone sculpture experienced one of its greatest moments in the Northern Wei period (386-534), when it was strongly patronized by the Imperial court. As the ruling family gradually adopted a more Chinese lifestyle, a stylistic change also took place in Buddhist sculpture during this period. Buddhist images with foreign-looking features, which had been adopted from Indian and Central Asian prototypes, when the religion was first introduced to China, gradually disappeared and were replaced by more Chinese-looking Buddha figures. One of the most enchanting styles appeared in the late Northern Wei, as represented by the present figure, when faces with fine and noble features were depicted with a faint smile, signaling enlightenment as much as benevolence. That the deities thus appeared more approachable undoubtedly helped the rapid propagation of the religion at that time.

Related sculptures of the sixth century were discovered among many hoards of Buddhist stone sculptures discovered in Henan and Shandong province, the best known and best-researched of which is the find from the site of Longxing Temple, Qingzhou, where hundreds of Buddhist images had been ritually buried, perhaps as a meritorious deed in the Northern Song dynasty after having been partially destroyed during some earlier anti-Buddhist movement.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related limestone head of Buddha in the Shandong Provincial Museum, Jinan.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 24 March 2011, lot 1296
Price: USD 338,500 or approx. EUR 418,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare large stone head of Buddha, Northern Wei dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling and manner of carving with similar facial features. Note the different material and larger size (43 cm).