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A GREY SCHIST HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA
ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 2ND-3RD CENTURY

$100,000-150,000

PROVENANCE
Collection of the Honorable John Edward Bingham of Sussex, England
(1904-1992).
Sotheby & Co., London, 12 December 1960, lot 62.
A. Garebed (1923 – 1958), London.
Collection of Denys Miller Sutton (1917-1991), United Kingdom
thence by descent.
Acquired privately in New York, 2013.
Private collection, London, 2016.

LITERATURE
The Burlington Magazine, No. 693 – Vol. 102, United Kingdom,
December 1960, p. iv.
The current work has passed through a number of important collections over 281, presumably based on his youthful appearance, with the cascading
the past century, including the collection of the Hon. John Edward Bingham in locks of hair, princely jewelry and the ushnisha, representing the period
the early twentieth century. By 1954, Bingham sold a number of works from his in Siddhartha’s life before he relinquished his worldly goods and became
collection of Gandharan art to art institutions in the United States, including Buddha, the Enlightened One.
the Baltimore Museum of Art. BMA deaccessioned a number of these
works to the Lawrence Art Museum at Williams College, Massachusetts; Similar figures have also been more broadly identified as bodhisattvas,
the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; and the Ackland Art Museum, those who have achieved enlightenment but forgo nirvana (the escape from
North Carolina. The current work was sold at Sotheby & co., London in 1960, rebirth) to serve as guides for all sentient beings. In the Gandharan period,
and acquired by the late antiquities dealer, A. Garebed. It then passed into the the most important of these figures were Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of
collection of the renowned art critic Denys Miller Sutton, the editor of Apollo compassion, and Maitreya, the future buddha. Each had defined iconography,
magazine and UNESCO Fine Art specialist, and through his family by descent. and would likely have been worshipped alongside images of Buddha himself:
Avalokiteshvara is distinguished by the fower he holds in his hand and usually
This impressively carved grey schist head embodies the naturalistic and wears a turban, while Maitreya holds a water pot and usually, but not always,
idealized sculptural style of Buddhist art from the ancient region of Gandhara. wears his hair in a topknot.
Depicted with a youthful face, with soft lips, aquiline nose, and almond-shaped
eyes below gently arching brows, all surmounted by fowing ringlets of hair, the According to tradition, Maitreya will be born a Brahmin, and therefore will
visage exemplifies the classical ideal of masculine youth. be dressed in the rich vestments similar to that of the historical Prince
Siddhartha, including beaded jewelry and hair ornaments similar to those
In the depiction of the hair ornaments, the present sculpture is similar to two found in the present work. Given the similarities between depictions of
works in the Peshawar and Lahore Museums, each identified as Siddhartha Maitreya and Prince Siddhartha, it is possible that the present head could
by H. Ingholt in Gandharan Art in Pakistan, New York, 1957, cat. no. 280- represent either.

The Burlington Magazine, No. 693 – Vol. 102, United Kingdom, December
1960, cover and p. iv.

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