Tête de bodhisattva

In 2003, the museum acquired a fine bodhisattva head from an old French collection. Characteristic of the early period of the dynasty, it differs both from the extreme geometrisation of the Sui period and the rounded and even plump style of Tang art in the 8th century. The figure’s juvenile features recall a famous bodhisattva head from Henan in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and, more distantly, a large standing bodhisattva dated 687 from Baimasi, near Henanfu (Luoyang). The treatment of the hair in thick locks, the perfect arch of the incised eyebrows and the very slanted eyes resemble the features of the stucco figures in Cave No. 328 at Dunhuang, which were sculpted under the reign of Wu Zetian (r. 690-705), including a bodhisattva in the Fogg Museum (Harvard University).