Unknown Artist
- Title
- Torso of a Buddha
- Place of origin
-
Mathura →
Uttar Pradesh →
India
- Period
- Kushan period mid 1st century - early 5th century → India
- Year
- 1st century-2nd century
- Media category
- Sculpture
- Materials used
- mottled red sandstone
- Dimensions
-
47.0 x 42.0 x 16.0cm
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Alex Biancardi 1998
- Accession number
- 114.1998
- Location
- Upper Asian gallery
- Further information
The youthful male torso is characteristic of the important Mathura school that flourished in northern India under the rule of the Kushan dynasty. Carved from the mottled red sandstone found around Mathura, it demonstrates the skill of the Indian sculptor in eliciting from hard stone the soft contours of a youthful body beneath transparent robes. The absence of this fragment’s head and right hand (which would have been held in a specific gesture, or 'mudra') prevents its precise identification.
The Asian Collections, AGNSW, 2003, pg.27.
- Bibliography (6)
-
'Buddhist Art', The Asian Collections Art Gallery of New South Wales 2003, 2003, 27 (colour illus.).
'Alex Biancardi November 18, 1923 - November 28, 1998' by Jackie Menzies, pg. 13., Look May 1999, May 1999, 13 (colour illus.).
Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 289 (colour illus.).
Ramesh Chandra Sharma (India, b.1936) (Author), Buddhist art: Mathura School, Delhi, 1995. Compare with plate 82
Michael Brand (Australia; United States of America, b.1958) (Author), The vision of kings: art and experience in India, Canberra, 1995. Compare with cat.no. 41
Pratapaditya Pal (Bangladesh; United States of America, b.1935) (Author), Indian sculpture: a catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection, Los Angeles, 1986. Compare with cat.no. 13
