INDIA, UTTAR PRADESH, MATHURA, KUSHAN PERIOD, 2ND CENTURY

Bodhisattva figures in the Mathura school have a somewhat different function than they do in Gandhara, initially being deities attending Buddha and often depicted as worshippers or bearing a fly whisk, as possible in the present example. The sensitive modeling of the body shows the coming of the Gupta age, displaying the quality of inner breath (prana) and graceful elegance. The powerful vigor and robustness of Kushana sculpture is gradually transformed by emerging Gupta aesthetics that conceive the image as a composite of physical perfection; compare with a figure of a Bodhisattva at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and a figure of Nagaraja at the Cleveland Museum of Art, see S. Czuma, Kusana Sculpture: Images from Early India, 1985, p. 74f. and 88f., cat. nos. 17 and 27.