A rare grey limestone stone head of Buddha

Northern Wei Dynasty, possibly Longmen

Northern Wei Dynasty, possibly Longmen
Carved with a benign expression modelled with almond-shaped eyes in meditation, pronounced brow ridges and pursed lips, the elongated face flanked by a large pair of pendulous earlobes, all beneath hair tied in rippled strands surmounted by a prominent ushnisha, fitted stand. 35.5cm (14in) high

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Provenance: acquired in Paris prior to 1980, by repute

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The distinctive features characterising the present sculpture, such as the long and narrow head, the arching brows, the broad nose and hair neatly arranged over the ushnisha, closely resemble those depictions of the Buddha Maitreya executed at Longmen, Henan Province, from the Northern Wei period. According to both Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism, Maitreya is regarded as the Buddha of the Future and believed to reside in Tushita Heaven, where devotees seek to be reborn after death. Longmen is a large Buddhist site consisting of hundreds of cave temples whose magnificence is largely attributed to the patronage of the site by the foreign Tuoba rulers of North China between 386 and 535 AD.

Compare with a similar stone head from the Longmen site, Northern Wei dynasty, illustrated by R.Y.Lefebvre d'Argencé, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Sculpture: The Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1974, pl.30; another similar example is illustrated by S.Di, Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Statues in Overseas Collections, vol.1, Beijing, 2005, p.167.