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拍品專文
The Kushans, descendants of nomadic tribes from the steppes of China, swept down in to the Gandharan and Gangetic regions in the early 1st century and established a powerful empire stretching across Northern India and Central Asia. Wily politicians, the Kushans preserved, and in some cases adopted themselves, many of the traditions and institutions of their conquered territory. Buddhism was perhaps the most important of these adoptions. It it is during the Kushan period that Indian artists began to craft images of the Buddha in his anthropomorphic form, as seen contemporaneously in both Gandhara and the Indian region of Mathura.
The Kushan kings clearly understood the importance of the image in establishing and maintaining their legacy in India. Several large portrait sculptures of the Kushan kings have been unearthed in their capital at Mathura, including a figure of Kanishka (reigned circa 127-140 AD), currently at the Government Museum, Mathura (see J. Kumar, Masterpieces of Mathura Museum, 1989, p. 53, pl. 20). In that image, Kanishka stands with his huge feet turned outwards, dressed in a dhoti under a long cloak, the folds of which flare outwards in a triangular shape. He holds the scepter of royal power in one hand and the hilt of a sword in the other. To avoid any confusion, he had his name emblazoned across the front to proclaim his rule.
The figure of Kanishka, then, must be regarded as the emblematic image of power for the period. In the present example we see some of these features in the figure on the left. Like Kanishka, he is dressed in the garb of a Central Asian nomad, with boots, leggings, and heavy cloak; most notable is the flared shape of the tunic, almost identical to the Mathura example. It is unclear what he would have held, but surely the presence of the scepter or sword would have identified the figure as a king. Perhaps a more probable suggestion is that of a Kushan noble or royal donor; extant examples from Gandhara have survived depicting similarly dressed men holding votive stupas or niches. The shape of the break on the left hand suggests this may have been the case in the present work.
There are few, if any, examples that have survived with the royal donor in the presence of the Buddha. In this case, the work is a visual statement of support for the Buddhist institution from the Kushan nobility. As a demonstration of humility, the donor figure has been rendered considerably smaller than Buddha. The Kushan noble then has been rendered not as a demi-god, as other kings would have sought to portray themselves as, but as a humble devotee to the grace of Buddha.
The Kushan kings clearly understood the importance of the image in establishing and maintaining their legacy in India. Several large portrait sculptures of the Kushan kings have been unearthed in their capital at Mathura, including a figure of Kanishka (reigned circa 127-140 AD), currently at the Government Museum, Mathura (see J. Kumar, Masterpieces of Mathura Museum, 1989, p. 53, pl. 20). In that image, Kanishka stands with his huge feet turned outwards, dressed in a dhoti under a long cloak, the folds of which flare outwards in a triangular shape. He holds the scepter of royal power in one hand and the hilt of a sword in the other. To avoid any confusion, he had his name emblazoned across the front to proclaim his rule.
The figure of Kanishka, then, must be regarded as the emblematic image of power for the period. In the present example we see some of these features in the figure on the left. Like Kanishka, he is dressed in the garb of a Central Asian nomad, with boots, leggings, and heavy cloak; most notable is the flared shape of the tunic, almost identical to the Mathura example. It is unclear what he would have held, but surely the presence of the scepter or sword would have identified the figure as a king. Perhaps a more probable suggestion is that of a Kushan noble or royal donor; extant examples from Gandhara have survived depicting similarly dressed men holding votive stupas or niches. The shape of the break on the left hand suggests this may have been the case in the present work.
There are few, if any, examples that have survived with the royal donor in the presence of the Buddha. In this case, the work is a visual statement of support for the Buddhist institution from the Kushan nobility. As a demonstration of humility, the donor figure has been rendered considerably smaller than Buddha. The Kushan noble then has been rendered not as a demi-god, as other kings would have sought to portray themselves as, but as a humble devotee to the grace of Buddha.