Head of Buddha

Ayutthaya, 15-16c
National Museum, Bangkok

This large bronze head was crafted in the first half of the Ayutthaya (1350-1767) period. The overall shape of the head is strongly rectangular. Its thin upper lip and full lower lip are rendered in a single curve above a prominent "Kirk Douglas" (bulbous, bi-lobed) chin. The fleshy nose forms a triangle from eyebrows to lips. Eyebrows delineate a continuous, bow-shaped curve above crescent-moon-shaped, lidded, and severely downcast eyes. The forehead has no urna. The sheer physicality of this visage seems to contradict, in a way, the purely formal detachment of its gaze and smile.