Page 53 - 2021 March 17th, Indian and Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, Christie's New York City

A Monumental Figure of Buddha

The present figure of the Buddha Shakyamuni is remarkable for its monumental scale and
sensitively-rendered features. Even with the feet and base missing, the figure is larger than life-
sized, and is further magnified by the fragmentary but nonetheless grandiose aureole that backs
the figure’s face. The presence of a kneeling adorant figure on the aureole distinguishes this work
as part of a rare group of known sculptures.
Despite the magnificent size, the face carved with gentle features, including a small, bow-shaped
mouth and almond-shaped eyes beneath elegant, arching eyebrows. The urna at the center of the
forehead is rendered as a shallow circle, and may have once supported an inlaid jewel. The hair is
carried out in luxurious ‘snail-shell’ curls, a seemingly later development from the earlier Gandharan
convention of pushed-back wavy locks; such curls were considered one of the thirty-two marks of
the Buddha, and became the predominant mode of representation in the almost contemporaneous
Gupta period.

The folds of the sanghati fall in rhythmic arcs across the form of the body, which is revealed beneath
the diaphanous fabric, in contrast to the heavily-rendered drapery of other Gandharan Buddha
images (see, for example, lot 406). It is possible the carvers of the present work were familiar with
the Gupta style that was beginning to take root throughout the Indian subcontinent: the sheer
drapery and contoured form of the body beneath, coupled with the ‘snail-shell’ curls of the hair,
are more in line with the Buddha images of Sarnath than with the classical contrapposto of typical
Gandharan figures of Buddha.

Examples of Buddha figures with adorant figures carved on the aureole are exceedingly rare, but
a few others aside from the current example are known. A seated figure of Buddha in the Tokyo
National Museum, illustrated by I. Kurita in Gandharan Art, vol. II, Tokyo, 1990, p. 83, fig. 212,
features figures standing on waisted lotus bases with their hands clasped in adoration, with two
additional adorant figures found on the front of the throne. Another seated example in a private
Japanese collection, illustrated by I. Kurita in ibid., p. 92, fig. 232, depicts a kneeling figure on a
blossoming lotus base. A standing figure of Buddha, at one time in the collection of Willard Clark,
and illustrated by I. Kurita in ibid., p. 84, fig. 213, is represented with two adorant figures on the
aureole, each standing on waisted lotus bases and clad in the attire of Indian prices.