Head of Bodhisattva

This feminine-looking Bodhisattva wears a tiara consisting of an elaborate headband decorated with a central rectangular element at the forehead and circular medallions at the temples. The hair is treated in small wavy strands in the form of flames framing the forehead. A mass of hair styled backwards covers the ears, whose deformed lobes wore thick, round earrings (only the left is still preserved). The expression is gentle, the facial features are idealised and bear the mark of Western influence: pronounced superciliary arches, half-closed almond-shaped eyes, aquiline nose, hemmed mouth, round chin. Just above the eyebrows, a painted circle represents the ūrṇā.

Acquired through a fund established by Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane for the purchase of Asian art in memory of Benjamin Rowland Jr. this work is held at the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

https://hvrd.art/o/202035

It is likely that the headdress was topped with a fan-shaped palmette, in the manner of Bodhisattvas no. HADB 70, 71 or 72.