A LARGE COPPER ALLOY HEAD OF BUDDHA


CENTRAL THAILAND, AYUTTHAYA PERIOD, CIRCA 150017 5/8 in. (44.7 cm) high
|泰國中部 大城時期 約1500年 銅佛首 This most remarkable head of Buddha is of a rare and distinctive type, strongly associated with Ayutthaya royal commissions, which Woodward describes as, "modeled in a style that strives for remote grandeur" (Woodward, The Sacred Sculpture of Thailand, Bangkok, 1997, p.228). Woodward made these comments referring to a very closely related example of the same size in the Walters Art Museum (54.2564). The present sculpture differs in metallic composition, has a slightly thinner headband, and survives in better condition. Yet the two share long and slender faces with pointed chins, thin and recessed crescent-shaped smiles, elongated concave ears, brows converging on a narrow nose bridge, slender upswept eyes, and small snail-shell hair curls. The effect, in the present sculpture, is one of empyrean assuredness.   The facial qualities of this sculpture echo those appearing on a set of twenty-four images of the Buddha made for Wat Phra Si Sanphet around the start of the 16th century. Wat Phra Si Sanphet was the Ayutthaya royal family's temple, built on the original palace grounds of the kingdom's founder King U-thong (r.1350-69), but later leveled by the Burmese in 1767. Woodward surmises that the set of twenty-four Buddhas was saved and transported to Wat Pho in Bangkok. The head of a deity from Wat Phra Si Sanphet exhibiting the same facial features is now in the National Museum, Bangkok (ibid, p.240). Adding to this facial type's regal associations, Woodward suggests that it may also draw inspiration from a large sculptural set of each of the Buddha's five-hundred previous lives, commissioned in 1458 by Ayutthaya's King Borommatrailokanat (r.1448-88; ibid, pp.186 & 228, fig.85). Provenance Collection of Pierre Combescot, 1965 – 2000.