佛像网

尺寸：高25 cm
年代：3-4世纪
质地：片岩石雕
风格：犍陀罗
来源：拍卖会
成交：829,500港元(2024.11)
参阅：外部链接
鉴赏：
犍陀羅 三/四世紀 片岩菩薩首

This life-sized head sports a Kushan turban replete with flowers, festooned gems, a bifurcating pendant in the form of Indic makaras, and a fan-shaped headdress with a piriform ornament. The figure modeled from this head exemplifies the noble qualities befitting a North Indian prince, as demonstrated by his crisp, wavy mustache, protruding jawline, arching brow, and introspective gaze. Because of a lack of additional attributes that might otherwise designate the sculpture's identity, many of these heads are simply referred to as bodhisattvas. This type of turban was not restricted to any single bodhisattva and was used by Gandharan artists to portray a number of individuals including the bodhisattva Maitreya. While normally identified by his piled topknot, Maitreya is sometimes depicted Turning the Wheel of Law in this particular headdress, as seen in an example sold in Christie's, New York, 30 March 2006, lot 48, and another published in Kurita, Gandharan Art, Vol. II, 2003, p. 57, no. 141.

At the same time, the present work could also be interpreted as Shakyamuni, or Prince Siddhartha, prior to his renunciation and quest for spiritual enlightenment, as evidenced by a narrative panel of Siddhartha casting aside this very same turban (see Lyons and Ingholt, Gandharan Art in Pakistan, 1957, no. 50). This motif also appears on a bodhisattva holding a flower garland in his left hand who forms a triad with Maitreya and Shakyamuni, further complicating any manner of precise identification (ibid, no. 254). Whichever may be the case, this finely carved and well-polished head nevertheless testifies to the critical eye and dexterous hand of the artist that made it. For other examples of bodhisattva heads of a similar sculptural quality, see one in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.71.1.45), another in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IM.4-1919), and a third sold in Bonhams, New York, 19 March 2018, lot 3067. Finally, compare the present sculpt to a bust of bodhisattva Shakyamuni with a nearly identical turban and physiognomy from the Samuel Eilenberg Collection, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1987.218.10).

Provenance
Private European Collection