AN ANDESITE HEAD OF BUDDHAINDONESIA, CENTRAL JAVA, 9TH CENTURY
35.6 cm (14 in.) high注脚A Buddha image of ineffable quiet and stillness has been carved from rough volcanic rock. The profile and dome of the head are broad, allowing for a round tapering of the forehead, cheeks, and chin that, once finished with a polish, produce an overall impression of smoothness, belying the porous nature of the stone. The sculptors working on the great stone monuments of 9th-century Central Java produced some of the most beautifully proportioned Buddhist sculptures of any period or medium.
 
The head is almost certainly from Borobudur or a related temple site, such as Sewu or Ngawen in Central Java. Built by the Shailendra dynasty around 825 CE, Borobudur is one of the greatest Buddhist monuments of all time, having one of the largest and most complete ensembles of Buddhist narrative relief panels in the world. Structured as a mandala of stacked platforms representing the three planes of existence in Mahayana cosmology (the world of desire, the world of forms, and the world of formlessness), Borobodur invites pilgrims circumambulating its didactic panels and sculpture to shuck the trappings of their perceived reality and realize their true inherent formlessness.
 
Three examples in the British Museum collected by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in the early 19th century demonstrate that not all Borobudur heads were created equal (1859,1228.175; 1859,1228.176; & 1859,1228.177). Some have softer, more delicate brows while others show harder features and more pronounced monobrows. Some have spire-like ushnishas, while others are broader and more pleasing. Of the three British Museum heads, it is the most celebrated and widely exhibited one (1859,1228.176) that bears the closest resemblance to the present lot, illuminating its quality.
 
Other heads with harder features include one in the Harvard Art Museums (2015.17) and another formerly of the Ellsworth Collection sold at Christie's, New York, 17 March 2015, lot 23. While perhaps the most closely related example to the present lot is in the Avery Brundage Collection of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (B60S379). In addition to its soft brow and quiet composure, the Brundage head shares the absence of an urna and is approximately the same size as the present head.
 
Provenance
Collection of Pieter Schelto Buteux (1865-1935), Mayor of East and West Souburg, the Netherlands, received as a wedding gift from his cousin in 1893
Thence by descent to the present owner


安山巖佛首
印度尼西亞，爪哇中部，九世紀
高35.6釐米（14英吋）

1,200,000-1,600,000港幣

此面容沉靜的佛首以粗獷的火山岩雕刻而成，其頭頂輪廓稍寬，使前額、面頰與下顎有足夠空間得以層層打磨以巧妙掩蓋岩體本身滄桑多空的質地，從而呈現出光滑質感。九世紀的工匠們在爪哇島中部一座座輝煌的佛教古蹟上無疑創造了歷史上最優美的石雕佛像作品。

此佛首幾乎可確定來自婆羅浮屠或其他爪哇中部的臨近廟宇，如塞烏寺或涯汶寺等。婆羅浮屠約於公元825年由夏連特拉王朝興建，自建成至今始終為世界上規模最為宏大的佛教建築之一，保留著最為龐大而完整的敘事浮雕。婆羅浮屠造型宛如一尊巨大的曼荼羅，自下而上的塔基、塔身與塔頂分別象徵著大乘佛教中大千世界的慾界、色界以及無色界三個境界。芸芸信眾在此間的層層浮雕與座座佛像前一次次走過，在虔誠的冥想與靜思中勘破現世不過浮華，而虛空則亙古長存。

大英博物館藏有三件由托馬斯·斯坦福·莱佛士爵士於十九世紀初收藏的婆羅浮屠佛像（編號1859,1228.175，1859,1228.176以及1859,1228.177），其面部塑造或眉目淺淡柔和、親切溫柔，或粗眉相接、硬朗有力，有的頂髻尖細、有的寬扁，可知婆羅浮屠佛像造型之變幻多姿。在大英博物館的三件佛首中，最為知名且多次展出的一件與本拍品最為相似，由此印證本件佛首之難能可貴。

其他近似但更為棱角分明佛首可見哈佛藝術博物館藏品（編號2015.17），以及佳士得曾售出的安思遠珍藏中的一件（佳士得，紐約，2015年3月17日，拍品23）。現存造像中與本拍品最為接近的可能還是舊金山亞洲藝術博物館Avery Brundage藏品中編號為B60S379的佛像。二者皆面容沉靜，眉毛刻畫柔和，未見白毫，且尺寸相近。

來源
Pieter Schelto Buteux（1865-1935年）珍藏。Buteux先生曾任荷蘭紹堡市長，其親屬於1893年將本佛首作結婚禮物相贈
後由家族傳承