A LIMESTONE 'LONGMEN' RELIEF FRAGMENTARY HEAD OF BODHISATTVA NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY

the grey limestone fragment carved in soft rounded volume with a relief head of Bodhisattva, the narrow face depicted with a serene expression with crescent eyes beneath arched brows above a small nose and a benign smile, all framed by long pendulous earlobes and a tall trapezoidal tiara above the centrally parted hairline, the stone of a variegated grey colour with traces of white and ochre layers, mounted on a wood stand

The James and Marilynn Alsdorf collection, Winnetka, Illionois.
Sotheby's New York, 15th September 1999, lot 37.

James and Marilynn Alsdorf, renowned patrons of the Art Institute of Chicago, where James served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1975-8, collected across categories, from antiquities, Middle Ages to Pre-Columbian, African, Impressionist and Modern art. Married in 1952, they assembled their Chinese, Indian and South-East Asia sculpture collection in the next twenty years under the careful guidance of great dealers including C.T. Loo, Frank Caro, Mathias Komor and J.J. Klejman, as well as the late Alice Boney. 

This head shows the characteristic crown of the Northern Wei period and displays particularly close similarities with figures from the Gongxian caves in Henan. For a related head, see Chinese Buddhist Sculpture. Veneration of the Sublime, Osaka, Municipal Art Museum, 1995, cat. no. 20, and for Bodhisattva figures with similar features in situ at Gongxian, see Gongxian Shiku, 1963, pls. 16, 37, 48, 67, 146, 264; and Zhongguo Shiku: Gongxian Shiku Si, 1989, pls. 165 and 170.

For another similar example, see Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from the Wei through the Wei through the T'ang Dynasties, published by the National Museum of History Republic of China, pl. 8, p. 106.