Footnotes

His skillfully carved noble and serene expression recalls the compassionate disposition of the bodhisattva, who has remained in the mortal realm to help sentient beings free themselves from its grip of suffering. Based on an early attribution of famous examples in the Central Museum, Lahore, and the Peshawar Museum, the ornate hairstyle here is commonly thought to identify the bodhisattva Siddhartha before he renounced the trappings of his princely inheritance and cut his hair off. But more recent scholarship accounting for a shift in devotional focus in 3rd-century Gandhara away from the life of Buddha towards celestial bodhisattvas, questions whether such figures might instead represent the bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara or Maitreya. (See Ingholt, Gandharan Art in Pakistan, New York, 1957, nos.282 & 286; and Luczanits (ed.), Gandhara: Das Buddhistische erbe Pakistans, Mainz, 2008, p. 273, nos.195-6.)

Regardless, graced with thick-layered curls, pulled up into a splendid chignon fastened by a jeweled fillet, before cascading down towards his shoulders, the bust exemplifies the high Greco-Roman sculptural legacy in Gandharan Buddhist art, at the crossroads between East and West. A further example, also treating the hair with great delicacy and naturalism, was sold at Christie's, New York, March, 20 March 2014, lot 1600.

Provenance
Arthur Huc (1854–1932), Toulouse
Private Collection, US


片巖菩薩半身像
犍陀羅，三／四世紀
高61釐米（24英吋）

500,000-700,000港元

此尊半身像呈現出犍陀羅雕刻工匠的精湛技藝，菩薩神情悅豫端詳、寧靜莊嚴，反映菩薩為芸芸眾生累劫積福的慈悲天性。根據拉合爾中央博物館和白沙瓦博物館對其館藏中幾件知名作品的早期描述，此類華麗的髮型應為悉達多在放棄其繼承權並剪掉頭髮以前的形象。不過近期學者的研究指出了犍陀羅地區三世紀時的一個宗教習慣轉變，從崇拜佛陀生平事蹟轉為供奉菩薩。在這種理論下，此尊半身像所描繪的可能是觀世音菩薩或彌勒菩薩（參見 Ingholt， Gandharan Art in Pakistan，紐約， 1957年，282和 286號; 以及 Luczanits （編）， Gandhara: Das Buddhistische erbe Pakistans，美茵茨， 2008年，頁273，195-6號）。

無論身份如何，此尊造像高貴不凡，卷曲濃密的頭發向上盤起，以珠飾髮帶固定髮髻，其餘散發傾瀉而下垂於肩頭，為希臘羅馬雕塑傳統在犍陀羅佛教藝術中的典型詮釋，實屬一件融貫中西的代表作品。另一尊對頭髮的刻畫同樣精緻寫實的作品，於2014年3月20日售於紐約佳士得（拍品 1600號）。

來源
Arthur Huc （1854–1932年），法國圖盧茲
美國私人珍藏