Standing Bodhisattva Maitreya (Buddha of the Future), Gandhara, Pakistan, ca. 3rd century CE. Gray schist, 163.2 x 53.3 x 20.3 cm (H x W x D). Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust Gift, 1991, 1991.75. Image courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Excerpts about Gandharan art
"Like citizens of Hellenistic cities around the Mediterranean, residents in cities of the most eastern domains of the Hellenistic world maintained the whole package of Greek cultural life. They participated in the physical exercises and intellectual studies available at the city’s gymnasium, worshipped various deities in their temples, and gathered at the theatre to celebrate Dionysian festivals and to watch plays...
...At the beginning of the Common Era, when the Kushan kings took control of Gandhara and Buddhism emerged there as a major force, viniculture and Dionysian traditions were still present in the region, as shown by images linked to the cult of the god Dionysus that were frequently incorporated into Buddhist sculpture." (Brancaccio and Liu)
"The Kushan sculptors established clear iconographic conventions for the Buddha and the Bodhisattva and for their mudras (language of hand gestures)...Gandhara also initiated a new narrative mode, employing the 'frozen moment' of western art that relied on anatomical accuracy, spatial depth, and foreshortening...One must remember, however, that Gandhara made only selective use of western illusionism, melding Hellenistic, Roman, Indian, and Parthian elements. As opposed to Gandharan illusionism, Mathura developed an alternative 'shorthand' narrative mode for depicting Buddha's life." (Mitter)
Sources:
Pia Brancaccio and Xinru Liu, "Dionysus and Drama in the Buddhist art of Gandhara," in Journal of Global History 4 (2009): 219-244.
Mitter, Partha. Indian art / Partha Mitter. Oxford University Press, 2001, Oxford, pp. 25-26.
Annotated Image
Standing Bodhisattva Maitreya (Buddha of the Future), Gandhara, Pakistan, ca. 3rd century CE. Gray schist, 163.2 x 53.3 x 20.3 cm (H x W x D). Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust Gift, 1991, 1991.75. Image courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- This sculpture is made from schist, a type of gray stone commonly used in Gandharan sculpture during the Kushan period. By contrast, sculptures from the same time period in Mathua were carved from a reddish sandstone. The halo, which represents rays of light, is carved from the same piece of stone.
- This sculpture includes the ushnishna (crainial bump, a symbol of wisdom shown here as a looped knot of hair on top of the head) and the urna (mark in the center of the forehead, also a symbol of vision and wisdom). The earliest sculptures showing the Buddha as a man emerged out of two places: Gandhara and Mathura.
- This sculpture depicts a bodhisattva, NOT Buddha. This is evident because of the figure's moustache and his jewelry. A bodhisattva is somone who is able to achieve Enlightenment, but chooses to delay doing so. Instead, they stay and dedicate themselves to helping others. This sculpture depicts the Bodhisattva Maitreya (Buddha of the Future), meaning he will be born in a distant future age when the teachings of the (current) Buddha have been forgotten. He will bring teachings about Enlightenment to people living in that time. The Bodhisattva Maitreya was a popular sculptural subject in this time and place.
- This region was ruled by different people over time: it was an early Vedic kingdom, then conquered by Persia, then by Alexander the Great, then part of the Maurya Empire, then (at the time this sculpture was made) part of the Kushan Empire. Alexander's conquest brought Greek cultural influences into Gandhara. The drape of this fabric shows strong evidence of Hellenistic (Greek) influence. However, the outfit itself is Indic (from India/South Asia). The figure is wearing a dhoti with a long sash elaborately draped around him.
- This pose (weight on one leg, other knee slightly bent) is similar to the position known as contraposto in Western art. It looks like a natural human movement, frozen in time, rather than a more static pose. This suggests the artist was familiar with Hellenistic sculpture from farther west.
- The figure is wearing sandals. This is another sign that the sculpture depicts a bodhisattva, not Buddha. Buddha is typically shown barefoot.
- The upper part of the base uses a lotus motif, common in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions.
- The base is framed by two columns, which seem similar to Hellenistic Corinthian-style columns. The center features a worship scene. On the right are three monks. On the left are two monks and a woman. In the center is a reliquary, an object used to hold the remains of a holy person - in this case the Buddha. "According to tradition, the cremated remains of the Buddha were divided into nine groups, and memorial stupas (shrines with domed roofs topped with a spire) were created to house them as places of worship. Some 230 years later, King Asoka is said to have divided the nine groups of relics into 84,000, which he used to create stupas throughout India. This custom spread with the transmission of Buddhism throughout Asia. At some point, polished pebbles, stones, bits of sand-worn glass, and possibly bits of bone from high-ranking Buddhist priests began to serve as substitutes for actual relics from the Buddha" (from "Buddhist Reliquary in the Shape of a Wish-Granting Jewel" at the Minneapolis Museum of Art). Sometimes the people depicted on the base of icons like this one were the donors who paid for the sculpture; we don't know if that is the case here.