Page 152 - Arts D'Asie June 20 2017 Christie's

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IMPORTANTE STATUE D’UN
BODHISATTVA EN SCHISTE GRIS
ANCIENNE REGION DU GANDHARA,
IIEME-IIIEME SIECLE

Il est représenté debout dans un léger tribhanga.
Paré de bijoux, il est vêtu d’un dhoti et d’une
écharpe plissés. Son torse est nu, son visage
méditatif et ses yeux mi-clos. Ses cheveux coifés
en chignon sont ornés de colliers de perles.
Hauteur : 78 cm. (30.2/4 in.) ; socle

€70,000-90,000 $77,000-99,000
£60,000-76,000

PROVENANCE

Private English collection.
Christie’s, Amsterdam, 12 April 1994, lot 11.
With Zen Gallery, Brussels, 26 November 1994.
Private Belgian collection.

AN IMPORTANT GREY SCHIST FIGURE OF A
BODHISATTVA
ANCIENT GANDHARA REGION,
2ND-3RD CENTURY

健陀羅地區 二至三世紀 灰片岩菩薩身像

來源：
英國私人舊藏
阿姆斯特丹佳士得，1994年4月12日，拍品11號
1994年11月26日購自布魯塞爾古董商Zen Gallery
比利時私人珍藏

The present schist sculpture of a bodhisattva is of
exceptional sculpting quality. It is likely he would
have held a water vessel in the left hand, identifying
him as the bodhisattva Maitreya. Maitreya is
considered the Buddha of the future - when the
dharma is forgotten on Earth, he will descend from
the Tushita Heaven to be born in our realm as the
next Buddha. His iconic water vessel, the kumbha,
is found in many diferent contexts within Indian
sculpture, but is almost always a symbol of fertility
and life.

When he is born on Earth, Maitreya will be of
Brahmin stock. He is dressed, therefore, in the
rich garb similar to that of the historical Gautama
Buddha, prior to his renunciation of worldly goods.
His vestments include a foliate collar and a rope-
work necklace with a makara-head pendant. He
is robed in the ankle-length dhoti, secured around
the waist with a knotted rope. The heavier sanghati
is open at the front to expose his muscular chest.
Both display the naturalistic attention to drapery
characteristic of the Gandharan period that is held
over from the earlier Greco-Roman infuence in
the region.

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