A SCHIST FIGURE OF MAITREYA


ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, CIRCA 3RD/4TH CENTURY28 in. (71 cm) high
|犍陀羅 約三/四世紀 片巖彌勒菩薩像 Sporting an elaborate turban, this well-carved and polished schist sculpture of Maitreya shows the Future Buddha raising his hands in dharmachakrapavartina mudra to progress the Buddhist Dharma. The sculptor has obviously sought to emphasize this feature of Maitreya's iconography, carving them slightly oversized and with attractive digits. As seen in a closely related example, the fire altar carved in low relief at the center of his rectangular throne is common to Gandharan depictions of Maitreya (Christie's, New York, 21 March 2012, lot 724) and another in the Ashmolean Museum (Harle, Indian Art, Oxford, 1987, p.14, no.16), that also has crown ribbons flailing across the nimbus. This appears to be a flamboyant feature reserved for Maitreya sculptures, repeated in an example in the Musée Guimet (Auboyer, Rarities in the Musée Guimet, Paris, 1973, p.23, no.1). Compare the close stylistic treatment of this sculpture's arrangement of jewels and turban - with a tall central fan-shaped cockade - to that of another published in Kurita, Gandharan Art, Vol. II, Tokyo, 2003, p.57, no.141. Furthermore, compare one with the cloth-covered base (ibid., p.63, no.157), and another with the same repeated loops draping over the proper right leg, published in Ingholt, Gandharan Art in Pakistan, London, 1957, p.137, no.302. Provenance French Private Collection, acquired in the 1960s ArtCurial, Paris, 11 June 2018, lot 161