
Mark Rasmussen
International Director
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犍陀羅 四/五世紀 泥塑觀音像
From the renowned collection of Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck, this refined and largely complete stucco figure of a bodhisattva depicts Avalokiteshvara with his diagnostic lotus stem held by his left hand. Avalokiteshvara crouches on a large lotus flower, his feet pressed firmly on its petals to support his naturalistic pose. His face is elegantly modeled in three-quarters profile.
With his attention turned to the left, this sculpture likely formed part of a common triad featuring Buddha flanked by the most prominent bodhisattvas in Gandharan Buddhism, Maitreya, and Avalokiteshvara. The remains of a similarly seated bodhisattva can be seen flanking a niched central figure at Jaulian Monastery, Taxila (Ingholt, Gandharan Art in Pakistan, New York, 1957, no.543). Also see a related stucco bodhisattva seated in meditation (ibid., no.542), and a similarly seated buddha in the British Museum (Zwalf, Gandharan Sculpture, London, 1990, p.310, no.587).
Provenance
The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection
Sotheby's, New York, 4 June 1994, lot 64