A GANDHARA WINGED ATLAS SEATED FIGURE, 2ND-4TH CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A GANDHARA GREY SCHIST FIGURE OF A WINGED ATLAS, ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 2ND-4TH CENTURY A.D. Carved in the round from grey schist, the figure is shown in a compressed crouching posture, the right knee raised and clasped by both hands while the left leg folds beneath the body, the toes of the left foot splayed against the irregular ground on which the figure rests. The torso is nude and heavily muscled, the pectorals and abdomen summarily modelled, and the shoulders broad in proportion to the compact lower body. Behind the shoulders rise the remains of two wings, the feathering incised in overlapping registers of parallel strokes and preserved most fully on the proper left side. The head is turned slightly to the figure's left, the face framed by a dense cap of tightly curled hair rendered as individual snail-shell curls, a heavy moustache falling over the upper lip, and a short beard following the line of the jaw. The brow is furrowed, the eyes deeply set beneath a strong ridge, and the nose broad. Surface deposits of ochre and darker encrustation remain across the stone, with losses to the wing tips and to portions of the base. The figure belongs to the type conventionally identified as an atlas or telamon, a load-bearing support figure adapted into the visual vocabulary of Gandharan Buddhist architecture from Hellenistic and Roman prototypes. Such figures were set into the plinths, cornices, and stair-risers of stupas and monastic structures, where they appeared to strain beneath the weight of the sacred monument above them. The crouching pose, the compressed musculature, and the upturned gaze are conventions of the type, calibrated to convey the effort of support. The addition of wings, as here, marks the figure as more than a straightforward atlas, aligning it with the wider Gandharan repertoire of hybrid guardian beings, yakshas, and semi-divine attendants who populate the lower registers of Buddhist monuments. The naturalistic treatment of the hair, the moustache, and the anatomical modelling of the torso all derive from the Mediterranean sculptural tradition transmitted eastward in the wake of Alexander's campaigns and sustained through the trade and diplomatic networks of the Kushan period. The medium is characteristic of the Gandharan workshops of the ancient region corresponding to present-day north-west Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Grey schist, quarried locally, was the preferred stone of the region's Buddhist sculptors from the first through the fourth centuries, favoured for its fine grain and its capacity to hold crisp detail in the carving of hair, drapery, and feathering. Its use for architectural sculpture of this scale, and for figures intended to be read from below at a raking angle, is consistent with placement on a stupa base or the riser of a processional stair. The synthesis visible here, of Mediterranean anatomical convention with an Indian Buddhist architectural function, is the defining feature of Gandharan production and distinguishes it from the sculptural traditions of Mathura and the later schools of the Gangetic plain. Winged atlas figures of this scale and quality exemplify the sculptural programme of the great Gandharan stupas, in which architecture and figural sculpture were conceived as a single narrative and devotional whole. The subordination of a classically derived nude male body to the structural role of supporting a Buddhist monument is one of the most eloquent statements of the cultural synthesis for which Gandhara is known, and the present figure preserves that synthesis in an unusually complete and self-contained form. Dimensions: Height: 49.5cm

图片