A SCHIST FIGURE OF PREACHING BUDDHA


ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 3RD/4TH CENTURY 35 in. (89 cm) high
|犍陀羅 三/四世紀 片巖佛陀說法像 This sizeable sculpture depicts Buddha with a sumptuously pleated robe, muscular biceps, and a handsome face. Buddha's monastic garment courses, drapes, wraps, and pools over his athletic body, displaying the high sculptural Greco-Roman legacy in Gandharan art. Raising his hands before his chest, Buddha displays the dharmachakrapavartina mudra, the gesture of Furthering the Dharma. The sculpture's tapering base and its effaced parasol at the top of the halo indicate it was once part of a larger ensemble, likely a centerpiece surrounded by didactic panels. The sculpture's construction and iconography are consistent with the central Buddha images of an important group lead by the famous 'Muhammad Nari Stele' (Luczanits (ed.), The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan, New York, 2011, p.163, no.68). Scholars offer competing interpretations of their subject matter, but generally they are considered to depict either Shakyamuni Buddha or Buddha Amitabha in their celestial abodes (Harrison & Luczanits, "New Light on (and from) the Muhammad Nari Stele", in BARC, International Symposium Series 1, Otani University, 2011, pp.69-127). Such ensembles exemplify the dissemination of Mahayana Buddhism throughout Gandhara by the 3rd century CE (Behrendt, The Art of Gandhara, New York, 2007, p.47). A closely related example was found at Yusufzai monastery and photographed in the 1860s (British Museum, 1868,0612.1862). Although constructed differently, with a rectangular throne, another closely related stylistic example, with the same mudra and showing the soles of the feet fully exposed, was sold at Bonhams, New York, 14 March 2016, lot 63. Two further examples, one in the British Museum (1880.217) and the other sold at Sotheby's, New York, 23 March 2007, lot 6, show the same mudra but are styled with squarer facial types and a slightly different arrangement of the robe's pooling hem, and demonstrate how these sculptures rarely survive with their halos intact – a feature that sets the present example apart. Provenance Private Dutch Collection by 1958 Thence by descent