LARGE GANDHARAN SCHIST STANDING BUDDHA WITH HALO

Ca. 200-300 AD. A grey schist carving of a standing Buddha. This excellent figure is backed by a circular halo and dressed in a flowing Kasaya (monastic robe). The head features thick, rich lips, an aquiline nose, half-closed eyes with well-defined eyelids, arched brows, an urna on the forehead, prominent ears and carefully modelled, wavy hair, culminating in an ushnisha. The figure stands atop a rectangular base. 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 schist 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. For a similar see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 67.154.5. Size: L:790mm / W:270mm ; 33.40kg Provenance: From the collection of a London gentleman; formerly acquired in early 2000s in Belgium; previously in 1970s European collection.