A GRAY SCHIST RELIEF WITH SCENES OF THE HUNT

ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 3RD-4TH CENTURY CE

Details

A GRAY SCHIST RELIEF WITH SCENES OF THE HUNT
ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 3RD-4TH CENTURY CE
7 3/8 in. (18.7 cm.) high; 29 1/8 in. (74 cm.) wide

Provenance

Private collection, Japan, before 1990.
Important private collection, Japan, by 1990.

Literature

I. Kurita, Gandharan Art, vol. II, Tokyo, 1990, p. 224, fig. 663.
M. Akira, Gandharan Art and Bamiyan Site, Tokyo, 2006, p. 107, no. 78.

Conditions of sale

Lot Essay

This decorative frieze illustrates a hunting scene with archers drawing their bows at a lion and lioness. Panels of the hunt, a popular noble sport, were a common fixture in Gandharan iconography. Compare the present relief with a pair of hunting scenes in the British Museum, illustrated by W. Zwalf in A Catalogue of the Gandhāra Sculpture in the British Museum, London, 1996, nos. 315 & 317.

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