The AMICA Library

Asian; Indian Sub-Continent; Indian

Gandharan

Head of Buddha

Full View

167

299

Kushan period, late 2nd-3rd century

Pakistan, Gandhara area

Sculpture

Phyllite

H. 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm)

Asia Society

New York, New York, USA

1979.002

Asia Society: The Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection

http://www.asiasociety.org

Most of the earliest known images of buddhas and other Buddhist deities were produced in northwest India during the Kushan period, about six hundred years after the religion was founded. There were two major centers of Kushan culture, each with its distinctive style: art from the city of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh displays a traditional Indian aesthetic, while art from Gandhara shows the impact of Hellenistic and Roman sculpture, owing to the sustained effect of Alexander the Great's conquest of the region in the 4th century BCE. The influence of Greek and Roman prototypes is evident in the wavy hair and facial features of this Buddha's head from Gandhara. However, the elongated ears and physical marks such as the urna ("third eye") in the center of his forehead are long-established Indian aesthetic conventions.

Asia Society. Handbook of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection. New York: Asia Society, [1981], p. 7.

Czuma, Stanislaw J. Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1985, p. 200.

Heeramaneck, Alice N. Masterpieces of Indian Sculpture from the Former Collections of Nasli M. Heeramaneck. New York: Privately printed, 1979, fig. 10.

Newman, Richard. The Stone Sculpture of India: A Study of the Materials Used by Indian Sculptors from ca. 2nd Century B.C. to the 16th Century. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Art Museums, Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 1984, pp. 57, 82, 84.

ASIA.1979.002

1998