Page 56 - Christies DEVOTION IN STONE Gandharan Art From a Japanese Collection Sept 23 2020 NYC

627 628
A GREEN SCHIST RELIEF DEPICTING THE PARINIRVANA A GRAY SCHIST RELIEF OF A STUPA
ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, PROBABLY SWAT VALLEY, ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 3RD-4TH CENTURY CE
2ND-4TH CENTURY CE 13æ in. (34.9 cm.) high
6¡ in. (16.2 cm.) high; 13¡ in. (34 cm.) wide
$12,000-18,000
$12,000-18,000
PROVENANCE:
PROVENANCE: Private collection, Japan, by 1988.
Private collection, Europe by, 1988. Important private collection, Japan, by 1990.
Important private collection, Japan, by 1990.
LITERATURE:
LITERATURE: I. Kurita, Gandharan Art, vol. I, Tokyo, 1988, p. 259, fig. 538.
I. Kurita, Gandharan Art, vol. I, Tokyo, 1988, p. 246, fig. 491.

The present relief depicts the moment when the Buddha leaves his material Before the onset of anthropomorphic depictions of the Buddha, aniconic
body and escapes from the cycle of rebirths into nirvana. The scene is symbols representing the Buddha’s enlightenment were central to
characterized by the juxtaposition of the states of grief and peace—the representational devotion. Images such as the empty throne, the wheel,
anguish of the mourners to the left against the serenity of the Buddha’s the Buddha’s footprint, and perhaps most lasting, the stupa reliquary, were
material body and the seated figure at right. Compare the present relief with interpreted as literal placeholders for the Buddha. The pillars flanking
a depiction in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 2015.500.4.1); in the either side of this domed stupa, with their sculpted lion capitals, recall
example at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the seated figure has been those the Mauryan emperor Ashoka commissioned at important Buddhist
identified as the monk Subhadra, reassured in his knowledge of the Buddha’s pilgrimage sites in the third century BCE. A comparable relief depicting
achievement of nirvana. Along with many of the other reliefs offered from female lay devotees gathered at a stupa was sold at Christie’s New York 22
this collection, this would have been installed on a stupa as an element of a March 2011, lot 212, and another relief depicting a monk circumambulating
decorative scheme illustrating the life stories of the Buddha. a stupa in the presence of the Buddha was sold at Christie’s New York on
23 March 2010, lot 116.

627
54