HUGE GANDHARA SCHIST STONE FIGURE OF STANDING

100-300 AD. Gandharan. A giant grey schist figure of a bodhisattva, who stands, gazing serenely into the distance. He is dressed in an elegant sanghati or mantle and wears elaborate jewellery, including a beaded necklace, armbands and an elaborate bejewelled headpiece, reflecting his spiritual wealth. His identity as a bodhisattva is established by the presence of an incised urna on his forehead, perhaps originally ornamented with a jewel. Together, these details create a majestic impression of a bodhisattva or individual who is able to reach nirvana (enlightenment) but delays doing so through compassion for suffering beings. Gandhara was an ancient region in the Peshawar basin in the north-west of the ancient Indian subcontinent. The Kushan period (c. 75-451 AD) of Gandharan art, to which this figure belongs, was the golden age of artistic production in the area. For further discussion on Gandharan art, see Jongeward, D. 2019, Buddhist Art Of Gandhara in the Ashmolean Museum. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Good condition. Provenance: Property of a Middlesex collector; acquired on the London art market before 2000; formerly in an old English collection since the 1970s. Size: L:1150mm / W:380mm ; 60kg+