A MONUMENTAL SANDSTONE HEAD OF BUDDHA, NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY, CHINA, 386-534Opinion: The head is carved from buff sandstone that has the appearance of granite from a distance. The style and material are typical of examples from the Yungang caves and surrounding area.Published: Stephen Little, Images of the Buddha from the Michael Phillips Collection, Arts of Asia, Jan-Feb 2013, page 112, no. 29.The rounded face deeply carved with small, pursed lips, broad flattened nose and thin, sharply cut eyes, flanked by long pendulous ears, all beneath the simply rendered hair and tall ushnisha. The stone of reddish-brown tone with some crystalline flecks.Provenance: An American private collection. Christie’s New York, 15-16 September 2011, lot 1360, estimate of USD 60,000 or approx.EUR 72,000 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). The private collection of Michael Phillips (born 1943), who is an Academy Award-winning film producer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, his parents were Lawrence and Shirley Phillips, noted New York dealers in Asian fine arts, selling to the Met, the LACMA, the Chicago Art Institute, and the British Museum among others. Michael Phillips is a collector of Asian art himself, particularly Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan sculpture. His most important films include The Sting (winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1973), Taxi Driver (winning the Palme d’Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival), and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.Condition: Good condition,mensurate with age. Extensive wear, losses, nicks, scratches, signs of weathering and erosion.Scientific Analysis Report: A scientific and technical examination was conducted by John Twilley, art conservation scientist. A copy of the examination report, dated 20 September 2007, apanies this lot. The report concludes that “the evidence strongly supports a history of natural weathering of the stone, on a scale of centuries rather than decades, subsequent to its carving”. Note that this report is also mentioned in the catalog entry by Christies from 15-16 September 2011.Dimensions: Height 43 cm (excl. stand) and 65 cm (incl. stand)Mounted on an associated stand. (2)The first of the formative phases of Buddhist sculpture in China, to which the current sculpture dates, lasted until roughly 495 AD and is represented by the cave temples in the north at Yungang. Over 50,000 statues lay within the Yungang Grottoes and surrounding area. Constructed during the Northern Wei dynasty by the imperial order of Emperor Wencheng, carving in the area began in 460 AD as an act of reparation for the Buddhist persecution of 445-452, and lasted until 494 AD when the capital was moved to Luoyang. The Yungang cliff is formed of horizontal layers of buff-colored sandstone, which lends itself well to sculpture, as well as to the excavation of large caves with horizontal ceilings. T