Lot Essay
While such figures are generally identified as 'Atlas', the prototype in classical mythology is never equipped with wings. Alfred Foucher suggests the interpretation as a yaksha, likewise supporting the base of a structure, with wings borrowed from Victory. It would thus represent an amalgamation of iconographic elements from Indian and classical sources; for a further discussion, see P. Pal, Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum, vol. 1, fig. 35, p. 68; for similar examples of winged 'Atlas' figures, see W. Zwalf, A Catalogue of the Gandhara Sculpture at the British Museum, 1996, pp. 206-11, fig. nos. 355-68.