GANDHARA SCHIST STONE FIGURE OF STANDING BUDDHA

100-300 AD. Gandharan. A grey schist figure of standing Buddha. He is depicted wearing a flowing gown and sporting a topknot (ushnisha). He has urna on his forehead, arched brow, heavily lidded, half-closed eyes, a bulbous nose, full lips, rounded chin and large, pendulous ears. He stands atop a plinth decorated with rosettes and is backed by a circular halo. Gandhara was an ancient region in the Peshawar basin in the north-west of the ancient Indian subcontinent (modern north-west Pakistan and South-east Afghanistan). 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 information 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 West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1990s. Size: L:550mm / W:135mm ; 9.4kg