IMPORTANTE STATUE D'UN BODHISATTVA EN SCHISTE GRIS
IMPORTANTE STATUE D'UN BODHISATTVA EN SCHISTE GRIS
IMPORTANTE STATUE D'UN BODHISATTVA EN SCHISTE GRIS
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IMPORTANTE STATUE D'UN BODHISATTVA EN SCHISTE GRIS

ANCIENNE REGION DU GANDHARA, IIEME-IIIEME SIECLE

Details
IMPORTANTE STATUE D'UN BODHISATTVA EN SCHISTE GRIS
ANCIENNE REGION DU GANDHARA, IIEME-IIIEME SIECLE
Il est représenté debout dans un léger tribhanga. Paré de bijoux, il est vêtu d'un dhoti et d'une écharpe plissés. Son torse est nu, son visage méditatif et ses yeux mi-clos. Ses cheveux coiffés en chignon sont ornés de colliers de perles.
Hauteur : 78 cm. (30.2/4 in.) ; socle
Provenance
Formerly in a private English collection.
Christie's, Amsterdam, 12 April 1994, lot 11.
With Zen Gallery, Brussels, 26 November 1994.
Private Belgian collection.
Special notice
This item will be transferred to an offsite warehouse after the sale. Please refer to department for information about storage charges and collection details.
Further details
AN IMPORTANT GREY SCHIST FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA
ANCIENT GANDHARA REGION, 2ND-3RD CENTURY

Lot Essay

The present schist sculpture of a bodhisattva is of exceptional sculpting quality. It is likely he would have held a water vessel in the left hand, identifying him as the bodhisattva Maitreya. Maitreya is considered the Buddha of the future - when the dharma is forgotten on Earth, he will descend from the Tushita Heaven to be born in our realm as the next Buddha. His iconic water vessel, the kumbha, is found in many different contexts within Indian sculpture, but is almost always a symbol of fertility and life.

When he is born on Earth, Maitreya will be of Brahmin stock. He is dressed, therefore, in the rich garb similar to that of the historical Gautama Buddha, prior to his renunciation of worldly goods. His vestments include a foliate collar and a rope-work necklace with a makara-head pendant. He is robed in the ankle-length dhoti, secured around the waist with a knotted rope. The heavier sanghati is open at the front to expose his muscular chest. Both display the naturalistic attention to drapery characteristic of the Gandharan period that is held over from the earlier Greco-Roman influence in the region.

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