Page 38 - Indian and Himalayan Art Mar 21, 2018 NYC

VARIOUS PROPERTIES
314
A GRAY SCHIST TORSO OF A SEATED BODHISATTVA
GANDHARA, 3RD/4TH CENTURY
29¿ in. (74 cm.) high
$50,000-70,000

PROVENANCE
Sotheby’s New York, 5 December 1992, lot 66.
LITERATURE
Himalayan Art Resource (himalayanart.org), item no. 24397
The present work is particularly distinguished by the presence of the small
fgure at the center of the torque, backed by a crescent-moon-shaped
The present work is a powerful paragon of the Gandharan
Buddhist sculptural tradition, with its emphasis on naturalism and medallion. While it is impossible to identify the fgure authoritatively, there
classical ideals of physiognomy. The life-size fgure sits in the lotus is precedent in Gandharan art for the lunar deity, referred to in the Hindu
position, with the torso held upright, and the hands folded in the tradition as Chandra, to be represented as a youthful male backed by a similar,
meditation gesture on the lap. The lithe musculature is partially upward-pointing crescent-moon-shaped nimbus. A schist fragment in a
covered with lavish folds of drapery, skillfully and deeply rendered private collection in Japan, illustrated by Isao Kurita in Gandharan Art I, Tokyo,
following the Hellenized style of the period. The jewelry, however, is 2003, depicts the deity backed by the crescent nimbus above a scene where
characteristically South Asian, with a circular torque around the neck, Siddhartha slips out of the palace in the middle of the night. See, also, a large
a thick rope-form braid terminating in beast-form clasps, and a single schist relief in the Karachi Museum, illustrated by H. Ingholt in Gandharan Art
thread draped across the chest and supporting cylindrical reliquary in Pakistan, New York, 1957, fg. 39 A-B, which depicts the same scene. The
chambers; examples of which still exist, including a precious-stone- presence of a lunar deity on the jewelry of the present seated bodhisattva is
inlaid gold reliquary chamber with circular lugs for attachment to a testament to the syncretic nature of Buddhism in this early period, adopting
thread in the collection of the British Museum, illustrated by W. Zwalf deities from the Hindu and Iranian pantheons freely.
in A Catalogue of the Gandhara Sculpture in the British Museum, vol. II, 犍陀羅地區 公元三/四世紀 黑石菩薩坐像
London, 1996, p. 351, fg. 668.

(detail)
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