Gray stone, China. Tang dynasty (618-907)

This head, very unusual in the power of its expression, is that of a Tianwang. These are the temple guardians who were originally demon kings and who were converted to Buddhism and made guardians of holy sites. As this head alone makes impressively clear, their appearance is powerful and extremely athletic. The precise depiction of the facial expression in its complete concentration on the greatest possible vigilance is of great artistic quality and has been reproduced with a rare degree of intensity. These Tianwang, literally “heavenly kings” are a quartet referred to as the Sida Tianwang 四 大 天 王 – the “Four Great Heavenly Kings” – as well as the “Diamond Kings”, the Jingang, 金 剛, literally “precious and hard”. This means that while they themselves can wound others, they cannot be wounded. This Tianwang have bodies and faith “as strong as steel”, something which this head makes visible very convincingly. Because it lacks attributes it cannot be identified by name. While they are less directly honored – compared to the Buddha, the bodhisattvas etc. – they are still elementary figures, portrayed in Chinese mythology as guardians located on the four corners of Mount Meru, where they have their palaces. The giant mountain Meru forms the center of the cosmos. This head has a tall shock of hair which emerges like a waterfall and is held together by a prominent piece resembling a sharp blade. The interplay of the expressive shapes of the almost screaming, open mouth, the dynamic arched eyebrows (with small volutes in the region around the nose’s bridge), the suspiciously raised forehead wrinkles and this “blade” is amazingly well done. While certain signs of its old age are, of course, present, this head’s very complete preservation is impressive. The heavy head is mounted of an elegant, metal base. Comparable examples can be found in “Complete Works of Statues in Longmen Grottoes”, Beijing 2002, ill. 28 to 30; in “Ancient Chinese Buddhist Sculptures”, Taipei 1989, no. 9; or in “Chinese Buddhist Stone Sculptures – Veneration of the Sublime”, Osaka 1995, no. 59.

HEIGHT (WITHOUT BASE) 56 CM

This sculpture had originally been part of the collection of a French noble house (see below) since at least 1967 and is documented in the collection’s records with a hand-drawn study – see illustration. This French noble family’s collection, of which this sculpture was originally a part, traces its roots back to Évariste Regis Huc (1813 – 1860), a French missionary and discoverer who became widely famous for his travels through Mongolia, Tibet and China. Reaching Lhasa in 1846, he was probably also the first European to do so. Huc laid the foundations for this collection, which was systematically inventoried and documented in 1967, although without more exact information about when each of the objects was acquired.

灰石造天王頭像。中國，唐代。高56厘米。

Expertise: Wolfmar Zacken