G704 LIFE-SIZE GREY SCHIST SEATED BUDDHA

NORTHWEST PAKISTAN, PROBABLY SWAT VALLEY

GANDHARA

2^ND – 3^RD CENTURY

H. 135 CMS, 53 INS

A majestic, life-size grey schist figure of Buddha with a benign, tranquil expression, seated in an elevated pose with his hands in dharmachakramudra (the gesture of teaching or ‘Turning the Wheel of the Law’), wearing a pleated sanghati that leaves his right shoulder exposed, his head framed by the remains of a nimbus decorated with lotus petals, the base with a post for insertion into a lotus pedestal.

For two related Buddhas in the Swat Valley Museum, Mingora, see nos. 89 and 90 in Dr M. Ashraf Khan, Gandhara Sculptures in the Swat Museum. Saidu Sharif, 1993.

Provenance: Private English collection since the 1970s.