 TWO STANDING BUDDHAS Current and Past Exhibitions
1 and 2 TWO STANDING BUDDHAS. LAOS, FROM THE VICINITY OF LUANG PRABANG.SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY.H. (INCLUDING FINIALS): 83 CMS, 32 ¾ INS (LEFT)AND 82 CMS, 32 ¼ INS (RIGHT).Two gilded and lacquered wood figures of standing Buddhas on high pedestals, their raised usnishas topped by flame finials, with eyes half-closed in meditation and faces gentle and serene; the left one standing in double abhayamudra and the right with hands crossed in front of his chest in the gesture of ‘reflection’. Laotian sculpture is rare, especially when crafted in friable materials like wood, which often falls victim to humidity or to insects. The Laotian kingdom of Lan Xang or Lan Chang was established during the 14th century and ruled by Thais. Its northern capital of Luang Prabang was subjected to cultural influences from the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, while its southern capital, Vientiane, absorbed Khmer and Ayutthaya (Thai) motifs. Among the four thousand Buddha images left by worshippers at the Pak Ou (Tam Ting) Caves, near Luang Prabang, are many examples of this type. For two related examples, please see pages 246 and 248 in S. Lopetcharat, Lao Buddha: The Image and Its History, Bangkok: Siam International Book Company, 2000. For more on the Pak Ou caves, see page 33 in D. Heywood, Ancient Luang Prabang, Bangkok: River Books, 2006.RIGHT HAND FIGURE IS SOLD.
|  26 STUCCO HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA Current and Past Exhibitions
26 STUCCO HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA. NORTHWEST PAKISTAN OR AFGHANISTAN.GANDHARA.4TH - 5TH CENTURY AD.H. 18 CMS, 7 INS. A sublimely beautiful white stucco head of a Bodhisattva with a gentle face and soft eyes, the hair in wavy lines and secured by a circular diadem.In Kim, Rudyard Kipling refers to the Gandhara sculptures of the Lahore Museum as possessing ‘the mysteriously transmitted Grecian touch’ and this is especially apparent here. For a similar head see no. 328 in Isao Kurita, Gandharan Art II: The Buddha’s Life Story, Tokyo: Nigensha publishing, 2003.
|  TERRACOTTA HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA Current and Past Exhibitions
28 TERRACOTTA HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA. NORTHWEST PAKISTAN OR AFGHANISTAN.GANDHARA, 4TH - 5TH CENTURY AD.HADDA STYLE. H. 18.5 CMS, 7 ¼ INS. A delightful terracotta head of a Bodhisattva wearing an elaborate diadem with pentagonal designs representing gold repoussé plaques above a braided band; the hair in wavy lines, the face well-proportioned and the eyes cast down in meditation, a well-formed nose above a sensitive mouth. The use of stucco and terracotta as a substitute for the grey schist of many early Gandhara sculptures led to a greater freedom of expression and innovation. For a similar terracotta head from the Robert Ellsworth collection please see fig. 199 in Deborah E. Klimburg-Salter, Buddha in Indien, Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, 1995. For a terracotta Bodhisattva head with similar repoussé plaques, see catalogue no. 15 in Treasures from the Silk Road: Devotion, Conquest and Trade along Asia’s highways, Spink, 1999.
|  HEAD OF BUDDHA Current and Past Exhibitions
14 HEAD OF BUDDHA.THAILAND.AYUTTHAYA PERIOD.17TH – 18TH CENTURY.H. 39.5 CMS, 15 ½ INS. A large and unusual gilded and lacquered stucco head of Buddha, the eyes inlaid with mother of pearl and gazing downwards in meditation, the mouth set with a gentle smile and the hair rising to a domed usnisha and composed of snail-shell curls.For a brief history of Ayutthaya please see catalogue no. 16.For a comparable head in bronze please see fig. 236 (cat. no. 99) in Hiram W. Woodward, The Sacred Sculpture of Thailand. The Alexander B. Griswold Collection, Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1997.
|  SEATED BUDDHA Current and Past Exhibitions
15 SEATED BUDDHA.BURMA.POST- PAGAN PERIOD.MID 15TH – EARLY 17TH CENTURY.H. 89 CMS, 35 INS.A large wood figure of Buddha, seated upon a double lotus pedestal with his right hand lowered in bhumisparsimudra (the gesture of summoning the earth to witness) and his left resting in his lap; the face stately but benign beneath an usnisha tapering to a flame finial; a rectangular opening on the back of the pedestal perhaps made for the concealment of relics. Age determined by University of Arizona Radiocarbon-14 test as 1448 - 1632 AD (95% certainty).This Buddha is very much in the Pagan style but the radiocarbon test reveals that it was made several centuries later. There are a number of examples of later images with a lingering Pagan influence; the figures tend to me more slender and somewhat ‘elongated’. For a later example in bronze in the British Museum, see fig. 10, page 62 in Donald Stadtner (ed.), The Art of Burma: New Studies, Mumbai: Marg Publications, 1999. For a second example in the Pagan Museum see fig. 285 in M. Girard-Geslan et al, Art of Southeast Asia, New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc, 1998.
|  HEAD OF BUDDHA Current and Past Exhibitions
17 HEAD OF BUDDHA.NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN.PROBABLY FROM THE KUNDUZ AREA.KUSHAN, 1ST- 2ND CENTURY AD.H. 36 CMS, 14 INS. A highly important and possibly unique white limestone head of the Buddha, the hair emanating in waves from a centre-point above a raised urna, the eyes half open and the mouth set with a gentle smile; with the remains of both shoulders and a mandorla still present.The style of this large, impressive sculpture marks a transition between the classical art of sites such as Ai Khanum and the more syncretic flavour of later art from Gandhara, typified by the artists of Hadda. Almost nothing of a similar style has survived the ravages of time and the attentions of iconoclasts. A rare exception is the celebrated limestone relief of the Buddha and disciples beneath the bodhi tree, found at Fayaz-tepe, near Termez, Southern Uzbekistan: see plate 175 in Shiruku Rodo dai bunmeiten. Shiruku rodo, oashisu to sogen no michi, (The Grand Exhibition of Silk Road civilizations). 3 vols, exhibition catalogue, Nara National Museum. Nara: Nara Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 1988 and fig. 265 in Jonathan Tucker, The Silk Road: Art and History, London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2003.Provenance: Private English collection.Previously sold in our 2002 exhibition ‘Glimmerings from the East’, catalogue no. 2.
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AN IMPORTANT EXHIBITION OF INDIAN, SOUTHEAST ASIAN AND CHINESE ART.