CATALOGUE No. 1 STANDING SCHIST BODHISATTVA

NORTHWEST PAKISTAN

GANDHARA

2^ND – 3^RD CENTURY AD

H. 86 CMS, 34 INS

A monumental grey schist figure of a Bodhisattva, perhaps Maitreya (the Future Buddha), with an imposing regal expression, his face handsome and adorned with a wide moustache, his long hair spilling over his shoulders and gathered into an extravagant top-knot secured by a diadem, wearing intricate and extensive jewellery and a lower garment supported by a twisted cord around the waist, with a long scarf wrapped around and under the left arm, his left hand probably once holding a flask for holy water.

This sculpture is published in Isao Kurita, Utsukushiki butsuzoÌ: Gandara bijutsu no meihin [Introduction to Gandharan Art], Tokyo: Nigensha Publishing, 2008.

The figure is dressed in the attire and adornments of Kushan royalty. For two similar Bodhisattvas, please see nos. 17 and 32 in Isao Kurita, Gandharan Art II: The Buddha’s Life Story, Tokyo: Nigensha publishing, 2003.

Provenance: Private English collection.