Page 150 - Himalayan Art Macrh 19 2018 Bonhams

3067
A SCHIST HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA
ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 3RD/4TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61563
11 1/8 in. (28.4 cm) high

$80,000 - 120,000
犍陀羅 三/四世紀 片岩菩薩佛首

Encompassing Northeastern Afghanistan and Northwestern Pakistan, the ancient
region of Gandhara benefited from the unique hybridity of early cultures. Displaying in
its sculpture elements informed by the Mediterranean, Near East, India, and Central
Asia, its artistic products are wonderfully cosmopolitan. The elaborate turban worn by
this handsome Bodhisattva has no direct comparison to Indian or Sasanian models but
retains elements of large faceted beads, thick fabric bands, and fantastical beasts at
the sides, represented in other examples published in Tissot, Gandhara, Paris, 1985,
figs.171-83. Also compare to a bodhisattva head in the Los Angeles County Museum of
Art published in Pal, Indian Sculpture, vol.I, Los Angeles, 1986, pp.168-9, no.S46. The
present sculpture is very finely carved and finished with smooth polish over the stone’s
fine grain.

Provenance
Spink & Son Ltd, London, 1970s
Sotheby’s, New York, 21 March 2012, lot 265

148 | BONHAMS