Page 19 - 2019 September 11th Christie's New York Chiense Art Himalayan bronzes and art

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A GREY SCHIST FRIEZE OF DANCERS
ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 2ND-3RD CENTURY
21¿ in. (54 cm.) wide

$12,000-18,000

PROVENANCE
Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art (acc. no. 1954.260.6), by 1954.
Sotheby’s New York, 16-17 March 1988, lot 12.

This charming frieze depicts a musical festival or ritual, a common scene in
the sculptural art of Gandhara with origins in the Graeco-Roman Dionysian
subject. At center are two female dancers, each with one arm raised,
dynamically circling one another to the music of the male harpist at far
left, with another figure at far right. The two female dancers are dressed
in traditional Central Asian garb of the period: a loose tunic belted at the
waist overfowing trousers, with lotiform bangles at the ankles. Although
fragmentary, the figure at far right, in contrast, wears full robes reminiscent
of the Greek himaton, illustrating the mix of styles and cultures in the ancient
region of Gandhara. The figures are fanked by powerful lion-paw feet, which
in Gandharan art were often used to raise thrones and low chairs.