Head of a Bodhisattva Schist Ancient region of Gandhara, Kushan Period

A superbly carved head of a bodhisattva, his perfectly proportioned oval face bearing a benevolent expression, with deeply carved elongated eyes set under arched brows with an urna placed in between, an aquiline nose and fine wavy moustache above bow-shaped lips. His rippled hair is arranged in undulating curls at the sides of his head and behind his ears and is gathered at the top in a double-looped knot secured with a jeweled fillet.

Mathias Komor, New York, 1950.

The Art of India, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, 1961
Indian Buddhist Sculpture from American Collections, J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, 1968

University of Rochester, Memorial Art Gallery, The Art of India, Catalogue of the Exhibition, 1961, Cat. 7
J. B. Speed Art Museum, Indian Buddhist Sculpture from American Collections, Catalogue of the Exhibition, 1968, Cat. 28
Steven A. Nash, with Katy Kline, Charlotta Kotik and Emese Wood, Albright-Knox Art Gallery: Painting and Sculpture from Antiquity to 1942, Buffalo, 1979, p. 108

This highly attractive head with its fine polish is a superlative example of the Gandharan style of sculpture that flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from roughly the 1st through the 5th centuries of the Common Era. The region of Gandhara, which comprised parts of modern day Pakistan and Afghanistan, was strategically located at the hub of the ancient Silk Routes and was an area of prime military and commercial significance in antiquity. The region was particularly influenced by Hellenistic culture resulting from the military campaign of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE. The legacy of Hellenism that he left in his wake was integrated with local traditions creating a multi-cultural lexicon out of which was born the Gandharan School of art, a unique amalgam of East and West. Gandharan sculptures, as seen in the present lot, are executed in a strongly ‘Classical’ Greco-Roman style that was applied to a purely Buddhist and Indic iconography.

The hybrid character of Gandharan art found powerful expression in Buddhism, a new religion that was founded in northern India towards the end of the first Millennium before the Common Era. The Buddhist creed, which placed emphasis on righteous and moral deeds as the path to salvation, was embraced by the cosmopolitan population of Gandhara and became the dominant religion in this area. Buddhist iconographic and artistic conventions were given eloquent form in the ateliers of Gandhara under the patronage of successive Indo-Greek rulers followed by the mighty Kushan emperors who oversaw the construction of hundreds of Buddhist temples and monasteries throughout their domain.

By the beginning of the Common Era, two strains or schools of thought had emerged in Buddhism, of which Mahayana or the Greater Vehicle form was popular in this region. Mahayana ideology advocated the expression of love and devotion to the Buddhist principle as the chief element in the attainment of salvation. The medium through which this possibility of salvation was advanced was the bodhisattva (translated as Enlightenment Being), a sentient being who is ready to receive Enlightenment but voluntarily postpones his own nirvana to transfer his merit to others so that they may cleanse their souls and achieve salvation. This altruistic deity was thus revered as a repository of benevolence and compassion and his images were created in large numbers by practitioners of the faith.

The elegantly modeled face displays the classic fusion of Indic and Hellenistic artistic traditions that characterized Gandharan art. Indeed the double-looped topknot crowning the deity’s head is reminiscent of the kroibilos of the Apollo Belvedere and points directly to Greek influence. The serene countenance with its contemplative and deeply spiritual expression is masterfully executed. The jeweled headdress is part of the rich suite of aristocratic accoutrements known as bodhisattvabharana, which indicated the deity’s divine identity and also acted as symbols representing the material and spiritual wealth to be gained by lay worshippers.

The youthful face and arrangement of the hair and headdress are almost identical to a complete bodhisattva image in the Karachi Museum; see H. Ingholt, Gandharan Art in Pakistan, New York, 1957, No. 293. Also compare with a bodhisattva bust illustrated in Isao Kurita, Gandharan Art Vol. II: The World of the Buddha, Tokyo, 2003, pl. 18.