A VERY LARGE ANDESITE STATUE OF BUDDHA, INDONESIA, CENTRAL JAVA, 9TH CENTURY Buddha is seated in padmasana on a raised base with the left hand in his lap. His eyes are downcast as he radiates an intense meditative expression. While several Buddha heads from this period were recorded in recent years, a complete statue must be considered as extremely rare. Provenance: Baron Alex Torri, Italy. An Italian private collector, acquired from the above between 1998-2002. Condition: Losses, erosion, wear and extensive weathering, overall consistent with the high age of this statue. The condition can be seen in detail on the various images available at www.zacke.at. Weight: 133 kg Dimensions: Height 74.5 cm A Buddha image of ineffable quiet and stillness has been carved from rough volcanic rock. The profile and dome of the head are broad, allowing for a round tapering of the forehead, cheeks, and chin that, once finished with a polish, produce an overall impression of smoothness, belying the porous nature of the stone, which has resisted over a millennium of weather exposure with a stunning ease. The sculptors working on the great stone monuments of 9th century Central Java produced some of the most beautifully proportioned Buddhist sculptures of any period or medium. The present statue is almost certainly from Borobudur or a related temple site, such as Sewu or Ngawen in Central Java. Built by the Shailendradynasty around 825 CE, Borobudur is one of the greatest Buddhist monuments of all time, having one of the largest and most complete ensembles of Buddhist narrative relief panels in the world. Structured as a mandala of stacked platforms representing the three planes of existence in Mahayana cosmology (the world of desire, the world of forms, and the world of formlessness), Borobodur invites pilgrims circumambulating its didactic panels and sculpture to shuck the trappings of their perceived reality and realize their true inherent formlessness. Literature comparison: Three examples in the British Museum collected by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in the early 19th century demonstrate that not all Borobudur Buddha heads (and statues) were created equal (1859,1228.175, 1859,1228.176, 1859,1228.177). Some have softer, more delicate brows while others show harder features and more pronounced monobrows. Some have spire-like ushnishas, while others are broader and more pleasing. Of the three British Museum heads, it is the most celebrated and widely exhibited one (1859,1228.176) that bears the closest resemblance to the present lot, illuminating its quality.