An extremely rare and important fragmentary stucco head of a Buddha or bodhisattva Chinese Central Asia, Karashahr or Kucha, 5th Century

truncated diagonally in half while fully preserving the full, fleshy chin and crisply chanelled bow-shaped lips held in a beatific smile, below the broad nose rising smoothly to an arching brow accented with an incised sweeping line and low ridge above the elongated almond-shaped eyes, the lids and pupils finely outlined in black along with the curly mustache, the lips painted red, with some traces of white pigment overall, wood stand, Japanese wooden box

Irregularly broken on all sides in front of the ears, below hairline and above neck. Left side broken just in front of the ear, a triangular section of hair remaining, two black marks on the edge, a small label stuck to surface inscribed with the numbers '146 113'. The right side broken to the middle of the cheek. Traces of gesso and pigment on the surface, cracks in the stucco especially on the forehead but surface stable, two small areas on chin and to right of lips where 'skin' is chipped. On the back the core material stabilized with varnish, the whole fitted and mounted to a modern plaster base. No restoration.
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 Central Asian discoveries during the expeditions of Stein, Grunwedel, Le Coq and Pelliot in the early decades of the twentieth century remain the most important archeological finds of Buddhist art, illuminating our understanding of the key transition of doctrinal texts and iconographic vocabulary in painting and sculpture from India to the Far East. The rarity of a stucco fragment, such as the present face, which could only have come from these finds during 1902-14, cannot be over-emphasized and its appearance on the market is a major discovery, since the majority of their cave-fresco fragments, silk banners, and larger stucco images, are now preserved in the collections of major museums worldwide, primarily the Musee Guimet, Paris, the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, and most importantly, the Museum fur Indische Kunst, Berlin.

The proportions of the present face remarkably captures the transmission from the late sculptural style of the Gandhara kingdom, as preserved in stucco in important fourth to sixth century sites like Hadda, in present-day Afghanistan; compare a Hadda stucco head in the Museum fur Indische Kunst, recently exhibited 'In the Footsteps of the Buddha. An Iconic Journey from India to China,' Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery, 1998, cat.no.20, and its subsequent translation and interpretation by the Central Asian believers of Turk and Uzbek lineage, who then created desert monasteries and stucco-decorated brick temples along the oasis trading-posts of Kucha, Karashahr and Turfan on the northern route of the Silk Road, and Kashgar, Khotan, and Loulan on the southern route, during the fifth and sixth centuries. Compare an extremely rare and remarkably well preserved full-sized stucco figure of Buddha on a pedestal, which originally occupied a brick-built temple niche in Karashahr, now in the collection of the Museum fur Indische Kunst, Berlin, illustrated by Pak Youngsook & Roderick Whitfield, Handbook of Korean Art. Buddhist Sculpture, Seoul, 2002, fig.037-4, pp.213. The present face, with its distinctive red and black outlines to the hairline, the painterly application of the accents to the brows and lips, appears extremely similar to the full-sized Berlin Buddha, and may be arguably strong evidence of an origin from the Karashahr site.

Similar techniques of painted accents to the hairline, eyes and lips, and in particular the rather lively curlicue moustache, are also to be found on wall-frescoes from the famous Qizil Caves, Kucha site. Two fragments from these caves, from the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, were sold recently in these rooms, 20th March 2007, lots 501 and 502. Compare also a very lively and sensuous mustached bodhisattva face on a fresco fragment from the famous Cave of the Painters (Cave 207), Qizil Caves, Kucha, traditionally thought to be among the earliest executed of the painted caves in that complex during the fifth century, also in the collection of the Museum fur Indische Kunst, Berlin, exhibited in Hong Kong, op.cit., cat.no.62. The present face, with its Indic almond-shaped eyes and sensuous full-lipped mouth, seems most likely to have been that of an attendant bodhisattva or ancillary deity, such as Indra or Vajrapani, within a huge stucco group of the Buddha with flanking figures which would have formed either the main image within a temple niche, or against the central block-pillar used for circu-ambulatory worship known as pradakshina, which was characteristic of these early Central Asian sites, and which were later so influential in the architectural and structural layout of the main Buddhist complexes in Dunhuang and cosmopolitan China.