SPECIAL ADVISORY: The Yale University Art Gallery is free and open to the public from Tuesday through Sunday. Masks and COVID-19 vaccination (including booster, if eligible) are required.Review our Visitor Policies
Asian Art
PrevNext1 of 4
Photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery
PrevNext2 of 4
Photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery
PrevNext3 of 4
Photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery
PrevNext4 of 4
Photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery
Explore image in Footprints of the Buddha (Buddhapada)
2nd century CE
Schist
34 × 49 1/4 × 2 1/2 in. (86.36 × 125.1 × 6.35 cm)
Gift of the Rubin-Ladd Foundation under the bequest of Ester R. Portnow
2015.141.1
In this relief, auspicious motifs such as wheels, swastikas, and shrivastas (wheels with hornlike tops) fill the soles and toes of the Buddha’s footprint. The snakelike heads of the two devotees in the niches on either side indicate that they are semi-divinities; the male figure on the left is a naga, and his female counterpart, a nagini, is on the right.
Geography:
Pakistan
Status:
On view
Culture:
Indian, Pakistani, ancient Gandharan
Period:
Kushan Empire (30–375 C.E.)
Classification:
Sculpture
Provenance:
London-based Pakistani collector; acquired by John Eskenazi Ltd., New York; sold to The Rubin - Ladd Foundation, New York, and Georgetown, Conn, October 30, 2002; given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2015
Bibliography:
Kathryn H. Selig Brown, Eternal Presence: Handprints and Footprints in Buddhist Art, exh. cat. (Katonah, N.Y.: Katonah Museum of Art, 2004), 34–35, pl. 1.
“Acquisitions July 1, 2015–June 30, 2016,” https://artgallery.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Pub_Bull_acquisitions_2016.pdf (accessed December 1, 2016).
David Ake Sensabaugh, “Footprints of the Buddha,” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2017): 84, fig. 1.
Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
