A WHITE MARBLE HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA, NORTHERN QI DYNASTYOpinion: Northern Qi sculptures of this size are exceedingly rare, as the art from this period was fashioned during a short twenty-five-year span and relatively confined to the northern provinces of Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, and Anhui.China, 550-577. Exquisitely carved, the face with a serene expression, an entrancing gaze from deep-set eyes above an aquiline nose and pursed lips, with hairbed into a chignon held together by a crown having both sides tied with ribbons trailing from floral medallions.Provenance: Christie’s Amsterdam, 30 October 2000, lot 83, sold for NLG 17,553 or approx.EUR 13,500 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). Roger Hollander, acquired from the above. Roger Hollander (1934-2018) was a graduate of Yale and a true American businessman, having turned a small family operation into a globally recognized industry. He was known for his expertise in Indian and Chinese textiles, and for his sprawling country estate on the edge of Yellowstone National Park that housed a vast wine cellar, research library, and many thousands of ethnographic artifacts. The estate, known as Irma Lake Lodge, once belonged to ‘Buffalo’ Bill Cody and was eventually sold by Hollander to Bill Gates for USD 9,000,000.Condition: Very good condition,mensurate with age. Extensive wear, losses, nicks, scratches, structural cracks, minor old repairs and fills, signs of weathering and erosion, and encrustations.Weight: 11.8 kg (incl. stand)Dimensions: Height 28 cm (excl. stand) and 38 cm (incl. stand)The Northern Qi dynasty was one of the most vibrant periods in the history of Chinese art, both religious and secular, as its openness towards foreigners, their ideas, beliefs, and goods immensely enriched the local cultural climate. It was within this cosmopolitan climate that Buddhist sculpture experienced perhaps its most glorious moment. The present head aligns with a simplified style of white marble carvings from this period found in Quyang of Hebei province. Theplete figure would have been an exceptionally large standing polychromed bodhisattva, a type depicted with the left arm bent at the side while holding an attribute, wearing simplified jewelry and robes, and standing above a double-lotus petal base on a plinth.Expert’s note: According to Osvald Siren, marble figures modeled in gently rounded forms, such as the present example, were typically produced during the second half of the 6th century. See Osvald Siren, Chinese Marble Sculptures of the Transition Period, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 12, Stockholm, 1940, pp. 473-496. Alsopare a closely related, very rare and important painted white marble Buddhist votive stele, Northern Qi dynasty, at Christie’s New York, 17 March 2009, lot 357. Christie’s notes the “massive size” of this important stele at 170 cm, but one mu