Enquiry about object: 9932
Thai Ayutthaya Bronze Head of the Buddha
Thailand Ayutthaya Period, 16th century
height: 17.2cm, width: approximately 11.2cm, depth: approximately 11.2cm, overall height (including stand): 29cm, weight: 3,080g
Provenance
private collection, UK, and thence by descent
This Buddha head is particularly beautiful. Cast from bronze, the features are well delineated and have been depicted with an unusual delicacy: they are serene and peaceful.
The eyes are downcast eyes, the lips have a faint smile, the eyebrows have been cast as one long brow and in relief, the earlobes particularly elongated to suggest the Buddha’s princely ancestry, and the head, with a rounded usnisha, is covered in unusually small, spiky curls.
The surface has a wonderful patina and varying colour.
Buddhas from the later Ayutthaya period tend to have more elongated faces, stronger noses, more pronounced lips, and heavy eyelids compared with Lop Buri or Sukhothai Buddhas. The Buddha here has some of these characteristics but also earlier ones, and so a 16th century dating seems reasonable, and possibly even slightly earlier.
A similar example attributed to the 15th-16th century is illustrated in Woodward (1997, p. 241).
The head is mounted on a wooden stand. It is a beautiful example.
References
McGill, F. (ed.), The Kingdom of Siam: The Art of Central Thailand, 1350-1800, Snoeck Publishers, 2005.
National Museum Volunteers Bangkok, Treasures from the National Museum Bangkok: Selected by the National Museum Volunteers Group, NMV Bangkok, 1987.
Pal, P., Art from Sri Lanka & Southeast Asia: Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum, Yale University Press, 2004.
Woodward, H.W., The Sacred Sculpture of Thailand: The Alexander B. Griswold Collection – The Walters Art Gallery, Thames & Hudson, 1997.
