A stone head of Avalokitesvara China, Liao dynasty

the head finely carved in rounded volumes, the eyes bulging slightly beneath the lids, below arching brows leading to a broad flat nose and small bud mouth with small double-chin, with a domed urna below symmetrical curls at the hairline, the high chignon secured with a triple-foliate crown tied by ribbons at the back of the head, with a central Buddha Amitabha in dhyanasana on a lotus throne against a flaming mandorla dramed by a cloud-form peak, the flanking panels set with 'jeweled' studs above large demi-florets (stand)

A similar stone head is illustrated in Perceval Yetts, The George Eumorfopoulos Collection Catalogue of the Chinese and Corean Bronzes, Sculpture, Jades, Jewellery and Miscellaneous Objects, vol.3, London, 1932, col.pl.LXXII; another from the J.T. Tai collection has been sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 29th April 1997, lot 708. A head bearing very similar features but slightly different crown is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated in Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to Fourteenth Centuries, New York, 1925, pl.563C.

In style, this type of stone sculpture is comparable to the painted clay sculptures of the Liao period in Lower Huayansi in Datong, Shanxi province, which are dated in accordance with AD 1038, several of which are represented with similar features, hairstyles and crowns; see Zhongguo meishu quanji: Wudai Song diaosu, Beijing, 1988, pls.138-41.