A SANDSTONE HEAD OF BUDDHA, MON-DVARAVATI PERIOD Thailand, 8^th-9^th century. Sensitively carved with heavy-lidded downcast eyes with incised pupils, thick ridged brows, a broad nose, elongated earlobes, and full lips forming a calm smile, the hair in snail shell curls over a high ushnisha.

Provenance: A private collection in Bergamo, Italy, acquired in the Italian antiques trade during the 1990s. Collection of Leonardo Vigorelli, Bergamo, acquired from the above. Leonardo Vigorelli is a retired Italian art dealer and noted collector, specializing in African and ancient Hindu-Buddhist art. After studying anthropology and decades of travel as well as extensive field research in India, the Himalayan region, Southeast Asia, and Africa, he founded the Dalton Somaré art gallery in Milan, Italy, which today is being run by his two sons.
Condition: Excellent condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, also to the breakages below the neck indicating they occurred a long time ago, with the overall strong wear to the sandstone showing that the head has been handled extensively and during a longer period. Losses, nicks, scratches, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations, old repairs and minor touchups, all as generally expected from a sandstone head of this age.

Dimensions: Height 31 cm (excl. stand) and 39 cm (incl. stand)

Mounted on an associated stand. (2)

Expert’s note: While there is great variation within the Mon-Dvaravati tradition, the sensitivity paid to the modeling of these facial features is in keeping with the period’s focus on the purity and fluidity of form. As expressed by Jean Boisselier in The Heritage of Thai Sculpture, 1975, p. 73, "The school of Dvaravati may stand alongside the great Buddhist artistic traditions of India, so enduring were its innovations and so persuasive its influence on most of the art of Southeast Asia."

Auction result comparison: Compare a related black stone head of Buddha, 26.7 cm high, also dated 8^th-9^th century, at Christie’s New York in Indian & Southeast Asian Art on 12 September 2012, lot 620, sold for USD 31,250. Compare a related sandstone head of Buddha, 24 cm high, dated to the 9^th century, at Christie’s New Yor in Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art on 15 March 2016, lot 318, sold for USD 25,000.