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

Before the onset of anthropomorphic depictions of the Buddha, aniconic symbols representing the Buddha’s enlightenment were central to representational devotion. Images such as the empty throne, the wheel, the Buddha’s footprint, and perhaps most lasting, the stupa reliquary, were interpreted as literal placeholders for the Buddha. The pillars flanking either side of this domed stupa, with their sculpted lion capitals, recall those the Mauryan emperor Ashoka commissioned at important Buddhist pilgrimage sites in the third century BCE. A comparable relief depicting female lay devotees gathered at a stupa was sold at Christie’s New York 22 March 2011, lot 212, and another relief depicting a monk circumambulating a stupa in the presence of the Buddha was sold at Christie’s New York on 23 March 2010, lot 116.