Expert authentication: Dr. Chang Qing has authenticated this lot, noting its stylistic similarities to Northern Wei Buddha images found in Henan and Shandong provinces of Northern China. A notarized copy of Dr. Chang's expertise, dated April 18, 2021, in the State of New York, accompanies this lot.
Dr. Chang holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Kansas and has held prestigious positions, including post-doctoral fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and senior research fellow at the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institute. He has conducted extensive research in China, participating in archaeological excavations at various historical sites. Dr. Chang is the author of several influential works, including Compassionate Beings in Metal and Stone: Chinese Buddhist Sculptures from The Freer Gallery of Art (2016) and Light of the Buddha in the Desert: Essays on Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang from 5th-14th Centuries (2012). He is currently a professor at Arts College, Sichuan University.

China, ca. 500-534. Finely carved, the face with a serene expression, marked by heavy-lidded downcast eyes, arched brows, a slender nose, and a sharply carved mouth well detailed with bow-shaped lips and prominent philtrum, flanked by large ears with pendulous lobes. The hair arranged in tight curls over the high domed ushnisha, all backed by a foliate nimbus.

Provenance: From a private collection in New York, United States.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Ancient wear, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations, obvious losses, structural cracks, chips, nicks, scratches. Remnants of gilt and old pigments.

Weight: 5,774 g (excl. stand), 7,163 g (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 17.7 cm (excl. stand), 24.8 cm (incl. stand)

With an associated stand. (2)

Buddhist stone sculpture experienced one of its greatest moments in the Northern Wei period (386-534), when it was strongly patronized by the Imperial court. As the ruling family gradually adopted a more and more Chinese lifestyle, a stylistic change also took place in Buddhist sculpture during this period. Buddhist images with foreign-looking features, which had been adopted from Indian and Central Asian prototypes, when the religion was first introduced to China, gradually disappeared and were replaced by more Chinese-looking Buddha figures. One of the most enchanting styles appeared in the late Northern Wei, as represented by the present figure, when faces with fine and noble features were depicted with a faint smile, signaling enlightenment as much as benevolence. That the deities thus appeared more approachable undoubtedly helped the rapid propagation of the religion at that time.

Related sculptures of the sixth century were discovered among many hoards of Buddhist stone sculptures discovered in Shandong province, the best known and best-researched of which is the find from the site of Longxing Temple, Qingzhou, where hundreds of Buddhist images had been ritually buried, perhaps as a meritorious deed in the Northern Song dynasty after having been partially destroyed during some earlier anti-Buddhist movement.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related limestone head of Buddha with a similar nimbus fragment in the Shandong Provincial Museum, Jinan.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s Paris, 14 June 2024, lot 55
Price: EUR 144,000
Description: An important carved limestone figure of a Buddha, Northern Wei dynasty, 6th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling of the face and similar serene expression with crisply cut features and dense curls of hair. Note the size (107 cm) and state of preservation.