A marble head of a bodhisattva, Tang dynasty

European Private Collection since circa 1910, and thence by family descent.

Peering out gracefully with his gaze lowered, his cheeks softened and hair gathered in a princely coiffeur, the present bust exemplifies the tender realism of statuary arts at the height of the Tang dynasty (618–907). Departing from the more formalised iconic depictions of preceding reigns and benefiting from developments in carving techniques carried across the Silk Road, Tang sculpture possesses a remarkable blend of naivety and grandeur. Preserved in private hands, unpublished for more than a century, the present head embodies this contradiction: its face smooth and peaceful, its hair and veil triumphs of fine linework and balance, the present head feels almost alive in its tenderness.

For other examples of similar form and design from the period, compare a bust in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 42.25.12), attributed to the Tianlongshan temple complex, included in Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from the Wei through the T’ang Dynasties, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1983, cat. no. 30; a stone head of related coiffeur and slightly more elongated face in the Sichuan Provincial Museum in Zhongguo meishu quanji. Diaosu bian, [Complete series on Chinese art. Sculpture] vol. 4: Sui Tang diaosu, Beijing, 1993, pl. 85; and a standing bronze figure with a similar hair garland and a high coiffeur veiled at the rear in Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku Bukkyō chōkoku shiron [History of Chinese Buddhist sculpture], pl. vol. 3: Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Tokyo, 1995, pl. 704.