A RARE AND MONUMENTAL (88 CM) LACQUERED WOOD HEAD OF BUDDHA, POST-ANGKORIAN PERIOD, 15TH-16TH

A RARE AND MONUMENTAL (88 CM) LACQUERED WOOD HEAD OF BUDDHA, POST-ANGKORIAN PERIOD, 15TH-16TH CENTURY
This lot is from a single owner collection and is therefore offered without reserve

The Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger, entry from 2005:
“No. 193, Sunde, LA 1975, Post-Khmer 14th-16th c. Giant wood head of Buddha”
Gallery price: EUR 21,000 or approx.

EUR 35,000 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing.

Expert's note: At 88.5 cm high, this monumental wood head of Buddha is a survival of exceptional scale and authority. Conceived on an architectural rather than merely devotional scale, it must once have crowned a colossal cult image, doubtlessly a figure of several meters in height and likely approaching five meters depending on its original posture.

Cambodia or Thailand. Powerfully carved, the face displaying a serene and contemplative expression, with heavy-lidded, downcast eyes set beneath gently arched brows, a broad nose, and full lips forming a subtle, composed smile, all flanked by long, pendulous earlobes. The hair is arranged in tight curls covering the prominent ushnisha surmounted by a large golden jewel.

Provenance: Laurits Sunde, Denmark, by 1975. Collection of Leo Albrecht, Denmark, acquired from the above. Jorgen Ruben, acquired from the above before 2005. In the Jorgen Ruben Collection for at least 21 years.

Laurits "Lau" Sunde (1910-1979) was an important Danish collector and dealer who played a pioneering role in introducing African art to Denmark and the wider Nordic region. He is particularly remembered for his interest in Yoruba art and culture, especially ere ibeji twin figures, which he promoted not only as works of art but also as expressions of the spiritual and ritual traditions of the Yoruba people.

Leo Albrecht was a German-born publisher and literary agent who established himself in Copenhagen after the Second World War. In 1951 he founded his agency, which played an important role in expanding the international market for Scandinavian literature. He began collecting art in the late 1950s, with a particular focus on Asian sculpture. In Copenhagen, he spent much of his time visiting antique dealers, museums, and exhibitions. He developed especially close ties with Ole Haslund, Lau Sunde, and Freddy Hansen, among the most prominent dealers in their fields. He also traveled frequently to London, where he became close friends with Adrian Maynard. Jorgen Ruben first met Albrecht in 1984, and they quickly became close friends. Ruben later described him as a gentleman and “the greatest collector of Asian art in Denmark.” He acquired Albrecht's entire Asian sculpture collection when Albrecht moved back to Germany after selling his publishing company. The two remained close, with Albrecht continuing to visit Denmark each summer and staying at the Ruben family's beach house north of Copenhagen.

Jorgen Ruben is a Danish art dealer and collector who has been active for over four decades and is highly regarded in the fields of Asian art and classical antiquities. Raised in an art-conscious family, Ruben was exposed early to both modern painting and European decorative arts. He began working in the art trade in the mid-1970s, first with Persian rugs and later with antiques, while travels to Iran and a visit to Persepolis sparked his lasting interest in antiquity. After studies in Copenhagen and London, he worked in England with a dealer in early furniture, before travelling widely in Latin America and Asia, deepening his knowledge of regional art and culture. In 1984 Ruben opened a gallery in Copenhagen dealing in Asian antiquities. He was later active in London and, in the early 2000s, operated the Brussels gallery Classic Art. Much of his career, however, has been conducted privately from home, selling by appointment to collectors, galleries, and museums. Ruben has always bought selectively, choosing only works that deeply engaged him, and often keeping them for many years until placing them with a collector he felt truly understood them.

Important Note: For essential information on the

Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger and provenance documentation please visit here: www.zacke.at/rubencollection_ledger

Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age, and displaying superbly. Old wear, age cracks, obvious losses, signs of weathering, flaking and losses to lacquer with some possibly renewed over the centuries, minor chips, surface scratches, all as expected. The wood with a rich, naturally grown patina.

Weight: 58.6 kg (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 88.5 cm (excl. stand), 121.3 cm (incl. stand)

With an associated metal stand. (2)

Wooden Buddhist sculpture

occupied a crucial place in Cambodia from the later Angkorian period into the post-Angkor centuries, yet major examples are exceedingly rare today. Unlike stone, wood was vulnerable to climate, insects, fire, ritual renewal, and dispersal, and the survival of a head of this magnitude is therefore remarkable. The present work belongs to the broad sacred world of late Angkor and post-Angkor Theravada Buddhism, when great images of the Buddha filled monastic and pilgrimage spaces, including Angkor itself. Its style also speaks to the artistic exchange between Cambodia and neighboring Thailand, especially the Khmer-related currents visible in U-Thong, Sukhothai, and early Ayutthaya Buddhist sculpture: the elongated ears, composed frontal gaze, sensuous but disciplined mouth, and emphatic cranial form all suggest a shared visual language across the lower Mekong and Chao Phraya regions. Epic in scale and deeply contemplative in expression, this head is not simply a fragment of a lost figure, but the commanding remnant of a once-gigantic image that would have embodied the Buddha's presence with overwhelming physical and spiritual force.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related wood head of Buddha, dated 13th century, illustrated by Pierre Garnier and Guy and Jacqueline Nafilyan, Khmer Art in Reserve, 1997, National Museum of Cambodia. Compare a related wood head of Buddha, U-Thong style, dated 14th-15th century, in the Ramkhamhaeng National Museum, Sukhothai, illustrated by Jean Boisselier, Le Cambodge, 1966, p. 3. Compare a related smaller Cambodian wood head of Buddha, dated ca. 12th-14th century, 21.6 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 23.54.1.

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