Page 53 - 2021 March 16th Indian, Himalayan and Tibetan Art, Bonhams NYC New York

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A SCHIST PANEL OF MAITREYA IN TUSHITA HEAVEN Thatched and leaf-covered balconies are intricately depicted with
ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, CIRCA 3RD CENTURY supporting beams carved on their underside. Various onlookers
9 x 15 in. (22 x 38cm) lucky enough to have been reborn in Tushita Heaven populate them.
A woman in the top right corner prepares to throw flowers from an
$30,000 - 50,000 arched balcony in adoration of Maitreya. The panel compares favorably
with other examples of this subject published in Ingholt, Gandharan
犍陀羅 約三世紀 片岩彌勒菩薩居兜率天石碑 Art in Pakistan, New York, 1957, no.37 and (Zwalf, A Catalogue of the
Gandhara Sculpture in the British Museum, London, 1996, no.251.
This exceptional panel depicts Maitreya (lit. “The Benevolent One”),
the next buddha, now abiding in Tushita heaven as a bodhisattva, Provenance
awaiting the proper time for him to take his final rebirth. He is carved Sotheby’s, London, 5 June 1989, lot 1 (front cover)
handsomely, seated under a baldachin being fanned by putti who Bumper Development Corporation Collection, Canada, 1989-2017
stand on the capitals of columns rising behind a pair of lions protecting On loan to the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, 1989-2015
his throne. Within his celestial audience, two bodhisattvas immediately
flank Maitreya, the one on the left sitting on a wicker stool, which was
a common seat for a bodhisattva in Gandharan iconography.

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