A RARE AND MONUMENTAL (88 CM) LACQUERED WOOD HEAD OF BUDDHA, POST-ANGKORIAN PERIOD, 15TH-16TH CENTURY

拍品描述

A RARE AND MONUMENTAL (88 CM) LACQUERED WOOD HEAD OF BUDDHA, POST-ANGKORIAN PERIOD, 15TH-16TH CENTURY This lot is from a single owner collection and is therefore offered without reserve The Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger, entry from 2005: “No. 193, Sunde, LA 1975, Post-Khmer 14th-16th c. Giant wood head of Buddha” Gallery price: EUR 21,000 or approx. EUR 35,000 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing. Expert’s note: At 88.5 cm high, this monumental wood head of Buddha is a survival of exceptional scale and authority. Conceived on an architectural rather than merely devotional scale, it must once have crowned a colossal cult image, doubtlessly a figure of several meters in height and likely approaching five meters depending on its original posture. Cambodia or Thailand. Powerfully carved, the face displaying a serene and contemplative expression, with heavy-lidded, downcast eyes set beneath gently arched brows, a broad nose, and full lips forming a subtle, composed smile, all flanked by long, pendulous earlobes. The hair is arranged in tight curls covering the prominent ushnisha surmounted by a large golden jewel. Important Note: For essential information on the Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger and provenance documentation please visit here: www.zacke.at/rubencollection_ledger Dimensions: Height 88.5 cm (excl. stand), 121.3 cm (incl. stand) With an associated metal stand. (2) Wooden Buddhist sculpture occupied a crucial place in Cambodia from the later Angkorian period into the post-Angkor centuries, yet major examples are exceedingly rare today. Unlike stone, wood was vulnerable to climate, insects, fire, ritual renewal, and dispersal, and the survival of a head of this magnitude is therefore remarkable. The present work belongs to the broad sacred world of late Angkor and post-Angkor Theravada Buddhism, when great images of the Buddha filled monastic and pilgrimage spaces, including Angkor itself. Its style also speaks to the artistic exchange between Cambodia and neighboring Thailand, especially the Khmer-related currents visible in U-Thong, Sukhothai, and early Ayutthaya Buddhist sculpture: the elongated ears, composed frontal gaze, sensuous but disciplined mouth, and emphatic cranial form all suggest a shared visual language across the lower Mekong and Chao Phraya regions. Epic in scale and deeply contemplative in expression, this head is not simply a fragment of a lost figure, but the commanding remnant of a once-gigantic image that would have embodied the Buddha’s presence with overwhelming physical and spiritual force. Literature comparison: Compare a related wood head of Buddha, dated 13th century, illustrated by Pierre Garnier and Guy and Jacqueline Nafilyan, Khmer Art in Reserve, 1997, National Museum of Cambodia. Compare a related wood head of Buddha, U-Thong style, dated 14th-15th century, in the Ramkhamhaeng National Museum, Sukhothai, illustrated by Jean Boisselier, Le Cambodge, 1966, p. 3. Compare a related smaller Cambodian wood head of Buddha, dated ca. 12th-14th century, 21.6 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 23.54.1.

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