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recto overall
Head of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara
recto overall
recto overall

Head of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara

CultureCambodian
Datelate 12th-13th century
MediumGray sandstone
DimensionsOverall: 11 1/8 inches (28.26 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number30-34
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 225
DescriptionHead with closed or half-closed eyes, a slight smile, hair arranged in plaits and a cylindrical topknot, in front of which is a figure of the Jina Amitabha.Exhibition History

Art of Greater India, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, March 1-April 16, 1950, no. 154 as Head of Avalokitesvara.

Masterpieces of Asian Art in American Collections, Asia House, New York, January-February 1960, no. 28 as Head.

Gallery Label
Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who attend Buddhas and assist people in their path towards enlightenment. The feature that identifies this as the bodhisattva named Avalokitesvara is the figure of Buddha, Amitabha, in his headdress. The gentle smile and closed eyes are hallmarks of the Bayon style.
Provenance

With Paul Mallon (1884-1975), Paris and New York, by 1930;

Purchased from Paul Mallon by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1930.

Published References

M. Virgile Rougier, “Nouvelles Decouvertes Cames au Quang-Nam,” in Bulletin de la Commission Archeologique de l’Indochine 2 (1912): 217-18, plate 14, (repro.).

Elie Faure, Histoire de l’Art: L’Art Medieval (Paris, G. Cres and Cie, 1921), 37, (repro.).   

Elie Faure, History of Art: Mediaeval Art, trans. Walter Pach (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1922), 41, (repro.).

“The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City Special Number,” Art News 32, no. 10 (December 9, 1933): 57, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 84, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 148, fig. 14, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 192, (repro.).

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art of Greater India: 3000 B.C.-2800 A.D., edited by Henry Trubner, exh. cat. (Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum, 1950), 94, plate 154, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 239, (repro.).

The Asia Society, Masterpieces of Asian Art in American Collections, exh. cat. (New York: The Asian Society, 1960), unpaginated, (repro.).

Laurence Sickman, “Stone Sculpture of India and South-East Asia,” Apollo, 97 (March 1973): 83, fig. 2, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 149, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 393, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 283, fig. 11, (repro.).
Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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