Page 10 - 2021 March 17th, Indian and Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, Christie's New York City

GANDHARAN MASTERPIECES FROM A PRIVATE JAPANESE COLLECTION

402
A LARGE STUCCO HEAD OF A FEMALE DEITY
ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 4TH-5TH CENTURY CE
13æ in. (34.9 cm.) high
$6,000-8,000
PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Europe, before 1990, by repute.
Important private collection, Japan, by 1990.
LITERATURE:
I. Kurita, Gandharan Art, vol. II, Tokyo, 1990, p. 125, fig. 341.

古犍陀羅 四/五世紀 泥塑女神頭像
來源:
私人珍藏，歐洲，1990年前（傳）。
重要私人珍藏，日本，不晚於1990年。
出版:
栗田功，《ガンダーラ美術〈II〉仏陀の世界》，東京，1990年，頁125，圖341。
This large head of a female deity can possibly be identified as Hariti, the patron
goddess of fertility and children. Hariti is one of the few female deities in the
Buddhist pantheon of ancient Gandhara, and by far the most significant. It
is fair to assume based on the larger-than-life-sized scale that the complete
figure would have honored a deity of great importance, and no female deity
compares to Hariti. Compare this stucco head to that of the large schist figure
of Hariti, lot 420 in the present sale, with similarly represented facial features,
coiffed hair and tightly woven headband.

Cover and illustration from I. Kurita, Gandharan Art, vol. II, Tokyo, 1990, p. 125.