A RARE LIMESTONE RELIEF FRAGMENT OF A LION HEAD NORTHERN QI DYNASTY

the greyish stone with traces of a white layer and ochre pigment, naturalistically carved in the form of a lion head, set with bulging expressive eyes within thin brows, a broad snout with flared nostrils, above a wide grinning mouth closed with a cleft upper lip, all below raised pricked ears, stepped wood stand

Acquired between the 1950s and 60s.

Two comparable lion heads which may have served as supports for the pillars of a gateway, with only the heads and front parts of the animals fully executed and the hind parts serving as plinths, are illustrated in Osvald Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vol. 1, New York, 1970, pl. 434 a and b, the former from the collection of Octave Homberg, Paris, and the latter from a New York private collection.