Page 38 - 2021 March 17th, Indian and Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, Christie's New York City

A Monumental Donor Figure

Establishing an accurate chronology for Gandharan art has been one of the Kushan rule was apparently marked by an attitude of religious tolerance,
great challenges for South Asian art historians. Many of the most important which, considering the various religions which were fervently practiced in the
archaeological sites were excavated in the nineteenth or early twentieth region, was perhaps a wise policy choice.
centuries, with methods far from the professional standards of contemporary
archaeology. Even those few works that bear dated inscriptions are far from As briefly mentioned previously, the present figure is dressed in the traditional
conclusive; the gray schist triad sold at Christie’s New York on 23 September garb of a Central Asian horseman, be it Kushan or Huna: a long tunic falling
2020, lot 609, for example, bears an inscription dated to ‘year 5,’ which has to the knees, over britches cinched at the ankles, and boots suitable for riding
led scholars to propose dates as early as the first century CE and as late as a horse. In “A Gandharan Donor on Sale by Sotheby’s New York,” published in
the fifth. In “The Site of Sahri-Bahlol in Gandhara (Part III),” published in East and West, December 2000, vol. 50, no. 1/4, p. 523, the scholar Anna Maria
South Asian Archaeology 1987, Rome, 1990, p. 762, the scholar Francine Tissot Quagliotti consciously adopts the term ‘Northern style’ to refer to this outfit,
proposes that the current figure represents “a Kidarite or Hephthalite donor… as the previously common term, ‘Kushan style’ precluded the continuation
wearing the tunic and breeches of a horsemen.” The Kidarites, also known as of the style into the Kidarite and Hephthalite periods. The ‘Northern style’
the Kidara Huns or Chionites, and the Hephthalites, who were also called the dress is in stark contrast to the traditional costume of a local Indian prince or
White Huns, were semi-nomadic Central Asian tribes that came to rule the
region of Gandhara following the decline of the Kushans. If the present figure
represents a Kidarite chief or nobleman, it was likely to have been carved in the
late fourth or even early fifth century, when the Kidarites assumed control of
the region; a Hephthalite attribution would push the date of the present figure
firmly into the fifth or sixth century. However, Tissot notes the close stylistic
similarities between the present figure and that of a female donor discovered
at the monastery of Sahri Bahlol, now in the Peshawar Museum the female
donor figure was found alongside coins dating to the reign of the Sasanian
king Shapur II (r. 309-379), thus suggesting a firm fourth-century dating. If
one assumes the present figure is roughly contemporaneous to the female
donor figure from Sahri Bahlol, then a fourth-century date and attribution of
either a Kushan or Kidarite nobleman or chief would be likely.
The present figure supports an arched shrine facing outwards on his left hand
at the center of his torso. Although the right arm is missing, the rough surface
to the right of the shrine (and comparison with other known Gandharan donor
figures) indicates that the right hand would have likely vertically supported the
right side of the shrine; see, for example, a donor figure in the collection of the
British Museum, acc. no. 1899,0609.2 illustrated by W. Zwalf in A Catalogue
of Gandhara Sculpture in the British Museum, London, 1996, vol. II, fig. 433, or
the Peshawar Museum female donor, in which the fingers of the right hand
rest on the proper right side of the shrine. Within the Gandharan context,
donor figures are shown to be holding a few different objects: some, such
as the British Museum example, hold spherical boxes and covers probably
representing reliquaries; others hold bunches of flowers; and others, such
as the present figure and the Peshawar Museum female figure, hold niched
shrines. While the shrine of the present figure is mostly missing, it would have
likely resembled that on the Peshawar Museum female figure, which is carved
to resemble a chaityaarch.
Although the exact function of the shrine itself is unknown, the fact that the
Peshawar Museum female donor figure was found in a Buddhist monastery
indicates makes it highly likely that both that figure and the present figure were
practitioners of the Buddhist faith, rather than Brahminism or Zoroastrianism.
The monumental size of the present figure indicates it was likely a high-level
commission, and demonstrates the commitment to the faith by the ruling
class. It is known that many of the Kushan rulers adopted Buddhism, including Female benefactor holding a miniature
Kanishka I, who was said to have convened the Fourth Buddhist Council. The shrine. Sahri Bahlol. 3rd-4th century CE.
Schist. 64 ¼ in. high. Peshawar Museum,
PM-3084.