3rd century C.E.

Asian Art

The soft folds in the shawl covering the Buddha’s shoulder as well as his hair and facial features echo Mediterranean artistic traditions first introduced to the Gandharan region, which encompasses present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan, by Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.E. This Greek-inflected style of Buddhist art was popular in the region during the Kushan era (ca. 30–375 C.E.) and persisted afterward. In the case of this Buddha, the square face and the schematized rendering of the drapery, which lacks the naturalism of earlier pieces, indicate that the sculpture was produced after the Kushan rulers had lost control of the region. At that time competing entities, including the nomadic confederations known as Huns, were fighting for dominance.

Medium

Schist

Dimensions

28 3/4 × 22 5/16 × 6 1/2 in. (73 × 56.7 × 16.5 cm)

Credit Line

Anonymous gift

Accession Number

1934.146

Geography
Period

Kushan Empire (30–375 C.E.)

Classification
Disclaimer

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 records is ongoing.

Provenance

Provenance

Private Collection, New Haven, Conn.; given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1934
Bibliography
  • Elise K. Kenney, ed., Handbook of the Collections: Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 283, ill.
  • Harald Ingholt, Palmyrene and Gandharan Sculpture: An Exhibition Illustrating the Cultural Interrelations Between the Parthian Empire and Its Neighbors West and East, Palmyra and Gandhara, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1954), fig. 28
Object copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

figures (representations), religious art

Inscriptions

Inscription in Kharosthi read in 1935 by Dr. Sten Konow of Oslo as: Enia danamuke or Enika . meaning 'gift of Eni-" see file.

Technical metadata and APIs

IIIF

Open in Mirador

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