Page 44 - 2021 March 17th, Indian and Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, Christie's New York City

GANDHARAN MASTERPIECES FROM A PRIVATE JAPANESE COLLECTION

412
A GRAY SCHIST STAIR-RISER RELIEF OF A MYTHICAL BEAST
ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 3RD-4TH CENTURY CE
8¬ in. (21.9 cm.) high; 9√ in. (25.1 cm.) wide
$1,500-2,500
PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Japan, before 1990, by repute.
Important private collection, Japan, by 1990.
LITERATURE:
I. Kurita, Gandharan Art, vol. II, Tokyo, 1990, p. 247, fig. 745.

古犍陀羅 三/四世紀 灰片岩雕瑞獸梯斜梁
來源:
私人珍藏，日本，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247，圖745。

This triangular relief likely once decorated the interior panel of the steps
leading up to a stupa base. The subject, a mythical beast resembling a
plump cockerel, suggests Hellenistic or Scythian influence and speaks to the
intermixing of Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian peoples in the Buddhist region
of Gandhara. For a diagram replicating a riser’s placement at a stupa and
a further discussion, see K. Behrendt, The Art of Gandhara, 2007, p. 27, fig.
II. A comparable pair of stair risers, including a similarly depicted mythical
cockerel, was sold at Christie’s New York on 12 September 2012, lot 517.

Cover and illustration from I. Kurita, Gandharan Art, vol. II, Tokyo, 1990, p. 247.