HEAD OF BUDDHA.

THAILAND.

AYUTTHAYA PERIOD, 16TH CENTURY.

H. (INCL. FINIAL): 57 CMS, 22 ˝ INS.

H. (EXCL. FINIAL): 33 CMS, 13 INS.

A large, superbly cast bronze head of Buddha Sakyamuni, the hair arranged in rows of snail-shell curls rising to a domed usnisha, the face smiling and serene and the eyes inlaid with mother of pearl and downcast in meditation beneath sweeping brows; extensive gilding across the surface.

For more on the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, see cat. no. 14.

For a similar head (in this instance, that of a crowned Buddha) see fig. 249 in Hiram W. Woodward, The Sacred Sculpture of Thailand. The Alexander B. Griswold Collection, Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1997.

Note: The finial is a later replacement.