1998.315: Head of a Buddha, Gandharan style
SculptureThe stone sculpture is of a head that was broken off. It is grey in color and is mounted on a white, square gallery pedestal. The sculpture has a round chin, small lips, slender but round nose, thin almond shaped eyes, and a thin and round brow bone. The hair is a bun on top of the head with waved line details.
Gallery Text
Although its popularity would not take hold in China until several centuries after its introduction during the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE), the religious teachings of Buddhism began in South Asia around the 5th century BCE, and by the 3rd century BCE, figural images with distinctive regional styles arose. Two grew to particular prominence, later serving as major inspirations for artisans in Central Asia and China. In the northwestern region of ancient Gandhara (parts of present-day India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan), artisans working in brightly polychromed gray schist or white stucco took their cues from Greek sculpture, creating figures with Classical facial features, thick curly locks, and heavy drapery. Gandhara was ruled by a series South Asian Buddhist Sculpture of Indo-Greek kings from the fourth century BCE onward and long served as an important artistic gateway between India and the West. Meanwhile, near the northcentral Indian city of Mathura, artisans drew inspiration from indigenous Indian sculptural styles, celebrating the corporeality of the body, which they draped in diaphanous robes that revealed its structure. Mathuran images were typically sculpted in mottled red sandstone quarried in nearby Sikri, and like their Gandharan counterparts, they were naturalistically painted. Visual elements drawn from both of these styles are visible in the early Chinese Buddhist sculptures on display in the next gallery.
With small mouth, slender nose, crisp, planar intersection of forehead and eyes, and wavy locks of hair, this idealized image of a Buddha bears all the Classical features of Greek-inspired Gandharan sculptures. The figure’s ushnisha, or cranial protuberance, which here resembles a topknot of hair, is the most important iconographic attribute of a Buddha and represents a physical manifestation of the Buddha’s expanded wisdom gained at the time of his enlightenment.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1998.315
- Title
- Head of a Buddha, Gandharan style
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Work Type
- sculpture, head
- Date
- 2nd century
- Places
- Creation Place: South Asia, Pakistan, Gandhara
- Period
- Kushan period, c.100 BCE-250 CE
- Culture
- Gandharan
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/192167
Location
- Location
-
Level 1, Room 1610, Buddhist Sculpture, Buddhism and Early East Asian Buddhist Art
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Dark gray schist
- Dimensions
- H. 40.3 x W. 20.2 x D. 22 cm (15 7/8 x 7 15/16 x 8 11/16 in.)
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- Lois Orswell, Pomfret Center, CT (by 1998), gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1998.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Lois Orswell Collection, by gift
- Accession Year
- 1998
- Object Number
- 1998.315
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Publication History
- Marjorie B. Cohn and Sarah Kianovsky, Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2002), cat. no. 331, fig. 74, pp. 162-163, 365
Exhibition History
- Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/21/2002 - 02/16/2003
- 32Q: 1740 Early China I, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 06/18/2024
- 32Q: 1610 Buddhist Art I, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/18/2024 - 01/01/2050
Subjects and Contexts
- Collection Highlights
- Google Art Project
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu