亮點：山中商會舊藏，但從這張照片上看，考慮放在旁邊的獅子、菩薩和另一個北魏風格的頭像都疑似民國作品，不知道是加分還是減分。從銷售的角度，應該只截取本品局部照片。早期山中商會的石雕也有部分存疑，真品也大量流入美國機構博物館。
這件山中商會菩薩第一次上拍是2016年4月份的奇趣專場，拍得728萬港幣，是一個非常高的價格，考慮到其尺寸僅為36cm。
Yamanaka & Co Provenance. However, judging from this photo, consider that the lion, Bodhisattva, and another Northern Wei style head placed next to it are suspected to be Republican works.
Showing the piece next to a bunch of old copies is not exactly helping the sale, which could be the reason why it was passed in 2021 sale. Early stone sculptures from the Yamanaka & Co are also partially in doubt, and a large number of authentic ones have found their way into American institution and museums.
This Yamanaka Bodhisattva was first auctioned in April 2016 in the Curiosities section and fetched HK$7.28 million, a very high price considering its size of only 36cm. It was later passed in 2021, and now in display at Sotheby's new Charterhouse underground exhibition place.
蘇富比描述：
柔和圓潤的臉頰經過優雅的雕刻，弧形的眉毛延伸至精緻的水準鼻梁，眼睛輕柔地向下投在豐滿的臉頰上，嘴型精巧，半閉著眼睛，表現出靜靜沉思的表情、 髮髻飾以鍍金的法輪，上面繪有深紅色的捲紋，兩側還有雕刻的小花。
the softly rounded face gracefully carved and framed by arched brows extending to a refined aquiline nose, eyes gently cast down above full cheeks and a delicately formed mouth, the gaze half closed in an expression of quiet contemplation, the elegantly coiffed hair in layers of looped sections with thick strands trailing around the well-formed ears over pierced elongated lobes and gathered high into a double chignon at the crown, the hairstyle decorated with a Dharma wheel painted with traces of gilt above a bed of crimson-painted curlicues, accompanied by futher carved florets to either side, the stone smooth with areas of darker patination, wood stand
來源
山中商會，紐約，1943年
展覽
山中商會，《Collection of Chinese and Other Far Eastern Art Assembled by Yamanaka & Company, Inc. Now in Process of Liquidation Under the Supervision of the Alien Property Custodian of the United States of America》，紐約，1943年，編號372
隋 石灰石加彩菩薩頭像
估價
3,500,000 - 4,500,000 HKD
已售出
7,280,000 HKD
石雕菩薩頭像，雕工嫻熟細膩，展現菩薩莊嚴華貴，仁慈沉靜，屬隋石雕工藝之最。菩薩面容纖腴合度，鳳眼低垂，秀眉與鼻樑相連成一道柔弧，長髮後挽成高髻，綴以雲頭法輪寶冠，萃集隋代經典佛相於一體。
參考波士頓博物館藏兩尊隋代石灰石菩薩立像，其一刊於 Osvald Siren，《Chinese Sculpture》，卷2，紐約，1970年，圖版315 A，另一件載於《中國美術全集．雕塑編》，卷4：隋唐雕塑，北京，1988年，圖版12，據傳1909年出自西安某古寺，面部雕刻風格自然逼真，華美寶冠均與此尊相類。並比較另一尊菩薩立像，頭冠綴法輪，錄於松原三郎，《中國佛教雕刻史論》，東京，1995年，卷2，頁580。
2021年奇趣專場（Curiosity）流拍
專文：
The Sui dynasty emperors used Buddhist faith and major building projects, including the construction of pagodas, temples, and religious statuary, as a means of unifying an empire that had been fragmented for over three centuries. At the same time, they led expansionist campaigns along China’s western and northeastern borders. These actions significantly impacted Chinese Buddhist practice in several ways which are reflected in religious art of the period. For instance, the political and social turmoil that accompanied dynastic changes in the 6th century led to the rise of a variant form of Pure Land Buddhism, in which devotion to Amitabha (or a bodhisattva, such as Avalokiteshvara) allowed adherents to be reborn in Sukhavati, the Western Paradise of the Buddha Amitabha. Consequently, images of bodhisattvas proliferated in the Sui dynasty, as evidenced by the present and numerous contemporaneous examples. The Sui emperors’ religio-political agenda also led to increased communication across eastern Eurasia, which contributed to the transmission of Buddhist concepts and artistic styles from South and Central Asia into China and from China to Korea and Japan. This had the concurrent effects of diversifying the visual vocabulary of each region of the empire, while preserving established characteristics in production.The present sculpture is sumptuously carved, the head characterised by fleshy features that harmonise the Sui dynasty’s emergent trend toward naturalism with the inherited idealised forms that conventionally conveyed the purity of Buddhist subjects. The pronounced aristocratic countenance and the serene meditative expression on this Bodhisattva head, rendered through the sensitive carving style and harmonious curves, epitomise the heights of quality achieved by stone carvers in the Sui dynasty. The slender but fleshy face, narrow slit eyes, sharply carved, arched brows which form a harmonious curve with the ridge of the nose, as well as the coiffure with hair drawn back into a high chignon, adorned with a Dharma wheel amidst cloud-head clusters, encapsulate the classic style of the Bodhisattva image in the Sui dynasty. In its opulence, the head belongs to a mature phase of Sui artistic production, when craftsmen synthesised styles from within and beyond China into graceful yet dynamic compositions that expressed the transcendental majesty of the Buddhist subject.
For comparable examples in museum collections, see two full-length Sui dynasty limestone sculptures of Bodhisattva in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the first illustrated by Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculpture, vol. 2, New York, 1970, pl. 315 A, the second in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji. Diaosu bian 4. Sui Tang diaosu [Complete series on Chinese art: Sculpture section], Beijing, 1988, pl. 12, where it is noted that it is said to have been found in an old temple in Xian in 1909. The style of carving on the heads of both sculptures, specifically the delicate naturalistic rendition of the features and headdress, matches that on the current head. Compare also the distinctive Dharma wheels integrated into the carving of the headdress on a full-length sculpture of a Sui dynasty Bodhisattva, illustrated by Saburo Matsubara, Chugoku Bukkyo Chokoku Shiron [History of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture], Tokyo, 1995, vol. II, p. 580.
Excavations at Qingzhou (Shandong) have yielded Northern Qi and Sui limestone standing bodhisattvas, detailed with polychrome pigments and gilding, that similarly bear full, oval faces crowned by intricate diadems, suggesting a geographic and cultural origin for this style of carving; for a Sui dynasty figure of Guanyin from Longxing si, Qingzhou, see Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, fig. 13.
Related sculptures in the Cleveland Museum of Art (acc. no. 1962.162), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 42.152.5a, b), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University (acc. no. 1943.53.43) represent the next phase in the Sui Buddhist sculpture wherein the bodhisattva’s features soften, reflecting a more naturalistic quality, and the rhythmic carving of the elaborate diadem serves to exalt the deity as a spiritual exemplar. These are precisely the qualities seen in the present example, suggesting that the sculpture was carved around or following the turn of the 7th century. This approach to figuration continued through the end of the Sui dynasty, as evidenced by a bronze standing bodhisattva with a nearly identical diadem and face shape, published in Saburo Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture: A Study Based on Bronze and Stone Statues other than from Cave Temples, Tokyo, 1966, pl. 233.
Stone sculptures of the Sui dynasty, particularly of this large size and quality, are rare. A closely related carved limestone head dated to the Sui dynasty and attributed to Shanxi province, formerly with C. T. Loo, was exhibited in Buddhist Sculpture from Ancient China, J.J. Lally & Co., New York, 2017, cat. no. 10. See also a polychrome-painted limestone head of a bodhisattva, originally acquired from Yamanaka & Co, and later the collection of Tsai Chen-Nan, sold in our New York rooms, 20th March 2018, lot 204.
隋代帝王積極弘揚佛法、大興土木，廣建寶塔、寺廟與佛像，一統大國，結束中國長達三百多年之分裂。亦同時大闊疆土，開西、東北邊境，對中國佛教發展造成多方面深遠影響，充分反映至當代宗教藝術中。公元六世紀政治動盪，國朝變更，淨土佛宗崛起成為獨立門派，提倡敬奉阿彌陀佛（或菩薩，如觀世音菩薩）使信徒往生淨土，即阿彌陀佛西方極樂世界。從此，隋朝菩薩形象廣受推崇，如見本品及同期作例。另外，隋帝以佛治國，促進中國與東歐亞大陸聯繫，佛教宗派及佛教藝術風格從南亞、中亞傳入中國，繼至韓國及日本，使各地在保留自身風格之外，亦可接觸佛教藝術之多元風貌。此尊石雕菩薩頭像，雕工嫻熟細膩，展現菩薩莊嚴華貴，仁慈沉靜，屬隋石雕工藝之最。菩薩面容纖腴合度，鳳眼低垂，秀眉與鼻樑相連成一道柔弧，長髮後挽成高髻，綴以雲頭法輪寶冠，萃集隋代經典佛相於一體。
參考波士頓博物館藏兩尊隋代石灰岩菩薩立像，其一刊於喜龍仁，《Chinese Sculpture》，卷2，紐約，1970年，圖版315A，另一件載於《中國美術全集．雕塑編》，卷4：隋唐雕塑，北京，1988年，圖版12，據傳1909年出自西安某古寺，面部雕刻風格自然逼真，華美寶冠均與此尊相類。並比較另一尊菩薩立像，頭冠綴法輪，錄於松原三郎，《中國佛教雕刻史論》，東京，1995年，卷2，頁580。
山東青州出土北齊及隋代菩薩立像，臉相圓潤飽滿，冠飾呈花瓣之狀，加綴飄帶弦紋，風格與本像相類，可作同源之佐證。參考一青州龍興寺出土隋代觀音像，錄於 Denise Patry Leidy 及 Donna Strahan，《Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art》，紐約，2010年，圖13。
另見相類例，分別藏於克利夫蘭藝術博物館（藏品編號1962.162）、大都會藝術博物館（館品編號42.152.5a及b）及哈佛大學賽克勒博物館（藏品編號1943.53.43），以上作例代表隋像發展風格，開臉柔和，更趨自然，冠飾精善，寶相莊嚴。此風格延續至隋末，見一銅菩薩立像例，面形、冠飾近同，錄於松原三郎，《中國仏教彫刻史研究：特に金銅仏及び石窟造像以外の石仏についての論考》，東京，1966年，圖版233。
隋代石雕造像甚為珍罕。可比較盧芹齋舊藏一相類隋首像例，相信源自山西，展於《Buddhist Sculpture from Ancient China》，藍理捷，紐約，2017年，編號10。另一例觀音首像則為靜雅堂舊藏，曾見於台北故宮博物院展覽《雕塑別藏：宗敎編特展圖錄》，台北，1997年，頁165，編號2，近售於紐約蘇富比2018年3月20日，編號204。
2024年蘇富比畫廊地下展廳展示，圖片拍攝2024.8.17
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