A CARVED LIMESTONE HEAD OF AVALOKITESHVARA SUI DYNASTY |

the full oval face carved with a serene expression, the downcast eyes set beneath finely arched eyebrows leading to the straight nose above full lips, the rounded cheeks framed by pendulous earlobes and surmounted by an elaborate diadem concealing a simple chignon, secured with a fabric band laying in folds above the forehead and knotted behind each ear, the three-lobed diadem carved in high relief, each lobe with a shaped border of scrolling curls, centered with the Buddha Amitabha standing on a lotus pedestal and backed by a tall mandorla between an openwork rosette suspending three tassels followed by a further lobe centered with an arch lined with circles, traces of red, green, and blue pigment throughout, tall wood stand (2)

Yamanaka & Co.
Collection of Tsai Chen-Nan. 

Diaoshu biecang/The Art of Contemplation. Religious Sculpture from Private Collections, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1997, p. 165, cat. no. 2.
Zhonguo gu fo diao tezhan [Special exhibition o f Chinese ancient Buddhist sculptures], Hualien County Cultural Center, Hualien, 1999, cat. no. 031.
Qian gu fo yan. Chuantong diaoke tezhan/Ancient Chinese Sculptures II [Thousand ancient Buddhist countenances. Special exhibition of classical sculpture], Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, 2000, cat. no. 28. 
The Beauty of Buddhist Sculptures, National Museum of History, Taipei, 2006, cat. no. 27. 
Buddha: The Embodiment of Wisdom and Compassion, Seoul National University Museum, Seoul, 2007, cat. no. 20. 

Yishujia yuekan (Artist Magazine), Taipei, December 1998, p. 254.
Bore baoxiang Jingyatang cang Zhongguo foxiang yishu/The Treasures of Chinese Buddhist Sculptures, Taipei, 2016, cat. no. 21.

In good general condition. As consistent with sculptures of this period, some characteristic wear to the stone surface, and small losses to carving, including to the sashes that would have originally hung behind each ear and down the shoulders; to the top of the diadem, including to the head of the Amitabha figure; and to one of the strands emanating from one rosette on the right side of the headdress. Traces of polychrome pigments, as visible in the catalogue images.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The Sui Dynasty emperors used Buddhist faith and major building projects, including the construction of pagodas, temples, and religious statuary, as means of unifying an empire that had been fragmented for over three centuries. At the same time, they led expansionist campaigns along China’s western and northeastern borders. These actions significantly impacted Chinese Buddhist practice in several ways which are reflected in religious art of the period. For instance, the political and social turmoil that accompanied dynastic changes in the 6^th century led to the rise of a variant form of Pure Land Buddhism, in which devotion to Amitabha (or a bodhisattva, such as Avalokiteshvara) allowed adherents to be reborn in Sukhavati, the Western Paradise of the Buddha Amitabha. Consequently, images of bodhisattvas proliferated in the Sui dynasty, as evidenced by the present and numerous contemporaneous examples. The Sui emperors’ religio-political agenda also led to increased communication across eastern Eurasia, which contributed to the transmission of Buddhist concepts and artistic styles from South and Central Asia into China and from China to Korea and Japan. This had the concurrent effects of diversifying the visual vocabulary of each region of the empire, while preserving established characteristics in production. The present sculpture is sumptuously carved with the attributes of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, known in China as Guanyin. The head is characterized by fleshy features that harmonize the Sui dynasty’s emergent trend toward naturalism with the inherited idealized forms that conventionally conveyed the purity of Buddhist subjects. Here, Avalokiteshvara’s broad arched brows and the sweep of the lowered lids lead the eye down the straight nose to the plump lips and slightly upturned chin, before following the softened jawline to the plump cheeks and returning upward to the crown of the head. The full oval face is counterbalanced above by a tall diadem richly carved with an image of the Buddha, floral features, wave-like borders, and streaming tassels in a combination of high relief and openwork detail. Even in its opulence, the diadem follows the standard Sui formula of a three-sided structure with aesthetic attention given to its band. These traits suggest that the head belongs to a mature phase of Sui artistic production, when craftsmen synthesized styles from within and beyond China into graceful yet dynamic compositions that expressed the transcendental majesty of the Buddhist subject.

Excavations at Qingzhou (Shandong) have yielded Northern Qi and Sui limestone standing bodhisattvas, detailed with polychrome pigments and gilding, that similarly bear full, oval faces crowned by intricate diadems with petaled lobes, pendent tassels, and articulated bands, suggesting a geographic and cultural origin for this style of carving; for a Sui dynasty figure of Guanyin from Longxing si, Qingzhou see Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, fig. 13; for a related Northern Qi bodhisattva, see Buddhist Sculpture: New Discoveries from Qingzhou, Shandong Province, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 2001, cat. no. 69. Similar traits, particularly with respect to the openwork tri-lobed diadem and elaborate diadem sash, are also seen on a Northern Qi precedent, probably from Western Shanxi or Shaanxi province, dating to around 575, included in the exhibition Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from the Wei through the T’ang Dynasties, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1983, cat. no. 18. In the subsequent Sui dynasty, these decorative elements developed more fluid lines and the bodhisattva’s face relaxed into a gentler expression, as seen in the carved figure of Guanyin in the Detroit Institute of Arts (acc. no. 26.128) dated by inscription to 581, and attributed to Shaanxi or Henan province by Osvald Sirén in Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vols 1 and 4, New York, 1925, pl. 305. Related sculptures in the Cleveland Museum of Art (acc. no. 1962.162), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 42.152.5a, b), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University (acc. no. 1943.53.43) represent the next phase in the Sui Buddhist sculpture wherein the bodhisattva’s features soften, reflecting a more naturalistic quality, and the rhythmic carving of the elaborate diadem serves to exalt the deity as a spiritual exemplar. These are precisely the qualities seen in the present example, suggesting that the sculpture was carved around or following the turn of the 7^th century. This approach to figuration continued through the end of the Sui dynasty, as evidenced by a bronze standing bodhisattva with a nearly identical diadem and face shape, published in Saburo Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture: A Study Based on Bronze and Stone Statues other than from Cave Temples, Tokyo, 1966, pl. 233.

Stone sculptures of the Sui dynasty are rare. A closely related carved limestone head dated to the Sui dynasty and attributed to Shanxi province, formerly with C. T. Loo, was exhibited in Buddhist Sculpture from Ancient China, J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 2017, cat. no. 10. A polychrome-painted limestone head of a bodhisattva, with a similar face shape but more elaborate coiffure and simplified hair ornaments, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th April 2016, lot 2871.