 SANDSTONE HEAD OF VISHNU Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 25.SANDSTONE HEAD OF VISHNU.KHMER.PRE-ANGKOR PERIOD.7TH - 8TH CENTURY.H. 20 CMS, 8 ½ INS.An exceptional grey sandstone head of a male deity, probably Vishnu, with an enigmatic smile; wearing large earrings and a tall, slightly tapering mitre headdress. Vishnu, together with Brahma and Siva, is one of the members of the Hindu trimurti (Skt. ‘Triple Form’). Vishnu becomes incarnate in different divine forms (avatars) from age to age in order to preserve the world.This style of Pre-Khmer sculpture used to be referred to as Prasat Andet. For a related image in the Cleveland Museum of Art, see plate 14 in Emma Bunker and Douglas Latchford, Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art, Chicago: Art Media Resources, 2004. See also plate 19 in M. Giteau, Khmer Sculpture and the Angkor Civilisation. London: Thames and Hudson, 1965. PROVENANCE: Private English collection. Acquired by the owner’s father during employment with the British Foreign Service during the 1950s or 1960s.
|  SANDSTONE HEAD OF VISHNU Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 27.SANDSTONE HEAD OF VISHNU.KHMER.PRE-ANGKOR PERIOD.7TH - 8TH CENTURY.H. 18.5 CMS, 7 ¼ INS.An exquisite grey sandstone head of a male deity, probably Vishnu, with a gentle smile; wearing a large earring in one (intact) ear and a tall, slightly tapering mitre headdress. Vishnu, together with Brahma and Siva, is one of the members of the Hindu trimurti (Skt. ‘Triple Form’). Vishnu becomes incarnate in different divine forms (avatars) from age to age in order to preserve the world.This style of Pre-Khmer sculpture used to be referred to as Prasat Andet. For a related image in the Cleveland Museum of Art, see plate 14 in Emma Bunker and Douglas Latchford, Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art, Chicago: Art Media Resources, 2004. See also plate 19 in M. Giteau, Khmer Sculpture and the Angkor Civilisation. London: Thames and Hudson, 1965. PROVENANCE: Private English collection. Acquired by the owner’s father during employment with the British Foreign Service during the 1950s or 1960s.
|  SANDSTONE HEAD OF BUDDHA Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 8.SANDSTONE HEAD OF BUDDHA. CHINA.PROBABLY FROM SHANXI PROVINCE.NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY.960 - 1127 AD.H. 32 CMS, 12 ½ INS.An over life-sized pale sandstone head of Buddha, sensitively modelled with a benign, tranquil expression, the eyes cast downwards in meditation, the hair arranged in bands of snail shell curls rising to a domed usnisha; with traces of pigment in the recesses.For a prototype of this style, dated to the Liao dynasty (1038), please compare with the painted clay figure of Buddha with attendants in the Huayan Temple (Datong, Shanxi Province) – see page 375 in A.F. Howard et al, Chinese Sculpture, Yale University Press, 2006.
|  Sandstone head of a lion
A yellow sandstone head of a lion.Height: 8 ins, 20 cm.Central India, Madhya Pradesh, 10th/11th century.
|  Sandstone head of a Jain Tirthankara (Jina). Current and Past Exhibitions
5. Sandstone head of a Jain Tirthankara (Jina). Northern India, Probably Uttar Pradesh.10th - 11th century.H. 15 cms, 6 ins.An exquisite pale buff sandstone head of a Jain Tirthankara (Jina), sensitively modelled with a benign, tranquil expression beneath bow-shaped brows. The principal Jain pantheon consists of twenty-four Tirthankaras (or saviours), the first being Rishabhanatha and the last Mahavira. A Tirthankara, or Jina has successfully passed through all the cycles of rebirth to create a passage for believers. Mahavira (c. 599-527 BC) was a historical figure and a near contemporary of the Buddha. For a comparable head, see fig. 53 in J. C. Harle and A. Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1987.
|  SANDSTONE HEAD OF A FEMALE DEITY Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 36.SANDSTONE HEAD OF A FEMALE DEITY.NORTHERN PAKISTAN OR KASHMIR? POST-GANDHARA.CIRCA 6TH CENTURY.H. 15 CMS, 5 7/8 INS. A placid, smiling sandstone head of a female deity, with a full, rounded face and eyes wide open beneath deeply arched brows and a luxuriant, pleated diadem. In the period following the decline of Gandhara its artistic heritage survived, with adaptations, in the surrounding regions. As Hellenistic influence waned ornate headdresses, reflecting both late Sassanian and Chinese tastes, replaced the elaborate coiffures of Gandharan female images. At the same time, developments in Mahayana Buddhism introduced goddesses and female Bodhisattvas into the Buddhist realm.This delightful head, from a Scottish castle collection, is apparently from a stone frieze. The heavy looking diadem is filled with a hood formed of rich folds of cloth. The warmth of expression, along with the full cheeks and strongly defined eyebrows suggest Gupta influence whilst the finely detailed mouth and eyes recall 6th century terracottas found at Ushkur and Akhnur in southern Kashmir.
|  SANDSTONE HANDS OF A DEITY Current and Past Exhibitions
No. 23(LEFT). LARGE BRONZE HAND OF BUDDHA .THAILAND, SUKHOTHAI PERIOD, 14TH CENTURY.L. 25 CMS, 10 INS.Reference: see nos. 58a and b in T. Bowie (ed.), The Sculpture of Thailand, Exhibition catalogue, New York: Asia Society, 1972.SOLDNo. 24 (CENTRE).SANDSTONE HAND OF A DEITY, POSSIBLY PRAJNAPARAMITA, HOLDING A LOTUS.KHMER, ANGKOR PERIOD, BAYON STYLE, LATE 12TH – EARLY 13TH CENTURY.L. 19 CMS, 7 ½ INS.No. 25(RIGHT). BRONZE HAND OF A MALE DEITY.SOLD.PROVENANCE (ALL THREE): Property of a private Japanese collector.
|  SANDSTONE FIGURE OF VISHNU Current and Past Exhibitions
No. 9.SANDSTONE FIGURE OF VISHNU.KHMER, PRE-ANGKOR PERIOD, PHNOM DA STYLE, 6TH - 7TH CENTURY.H. 28.5 CMS, 11 ¼ INS.A grey sandstone figure of a four-armed Vishnu, the face broad and imposing beneath a mitre headdress, the upper left hand holding a conch and the upper right a chakra, the belt and pleats of the knee-length sampot delineated by shallow, incised lines.Note: The cross-bar behind the head has been repaired.For a related figure of a Phnom Da Vishnu in the Phnom Penh Museum, see plate 84 in M. Girard-Geslan et al, Art of Southeast Asia, New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc, 1998.PROVENANCE: Property of a private Japanese collector.
|  SANDSTONE FIGURE OF PRAJNAPARAMITA Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 26.SANDSTONE FIGURE OF PRAJNAPARAMITA.KHMER.ANGKOR PERIOD.ANGKOR WAT STYLE.EARLY 12TH CENTURY.H. 89 CMS, 35 INS.A superbly sculpted greyish-brown sandstone bust of Prajnaparamita, the face gentle and serene beneath a conical headdress adorned with a seated figure of Amitabha Buddha; wearing elaborate jewellery and a sampot with a broad flap folded over at the front, an incised belt embellished with pendants and lotus rosettes, and a large central fish-tail pleat. Prajnaparamita is the Goddess of Transcendent Wisdom and Mother of all Buddhas.The reign of the great ruler King Suryavarman II (r. 1113 –ca. 1150) was marked by an expansion of the empire and the construction of Angkor Wat, one of the supreme architectural masterpieces of the earth. It was built as a temple- mountain, dedicated to Vishnu and was also intended as King Suryavarman’s personal funerary monument.For a closely related image of Lakshmi in the Phnom Penh Museum, see cat. no. 91 in Khun Samen, The New Guide to the National Museum-Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh: Department of Museums, 2006. The Phnom Penh Museum also has a figure of Prajnaparamita without a necklace but with similar belt pendants – see pl. 42 in M. Giteau, Khmer Sculpture and the Angkor Civilisation. London: Thames and Hudson, 1965. PROVENANCE: Private English collection.
|  SANDSTONE BUST OF A FEMALE DEITY Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 20.SANDSTONE BUST OF A FEMALE DEITY.NORTHERN INDIA.PROBABLY FROM GWALIOR, MADHYA PRADESH.POST GUPTA PERIOD.CIRCA 7TH CENTURY. H. 33 CMS, 13 INS.A voluptuous, reddish-brown sandstone bust of female deity with a sweeping piled up coiffure secured by an elaborate diadem, wearing extensive jewellery; the facing smiling and serene beneath arched brows. For a closely related female bust from Gwalior, in the National Museum, New Delhi, see plate 127 in C. Sivaramamurti, The Art of India, New York: Harry N. Abrams inc, 1977. For a second figure from Bihar, in the L.A. County Museum of Art, identified as the Jain yakshi Ambika or the Hindu goddess Durga (also sometimes known as Ambika), see no. 20 in P. Pal, The Sensuous Immortals: A Selection of Sculptures from the Pan-Asian Collection, L.A. County Museum of Art, 1977. Ambika is worshipped on behalf of mothers and children and is frequently depicted seated with her child beneath a mango tree, her vehicle (the lion) at her feet.PROVENANCE:Private English collection since around 1967.
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