Footnotes

A SCHIST ATLAS FIGURE IN THE FORM OF HERCULES
ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 2ND/3RD CENTURY

犍陀羅 二/三世紀 片岩赫拉克利斯形象之阿特拉斯像

Published:
Mario Bussagli, L'Arte del Gandhara, Torino, 1984, p. 55.
Isao Kurita, Gandharan Art, Vol. II, Tokyo, 1990, p. 155, fig. 448.

Provenance:
With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970s

Fewer subjects convey the intriguing Greco-Roman legacy in ancient Gandhara (modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan) more clearly than such Atlas figures lining the bases of its Buddhist stupas. Epitomized by this superlative example, the bearded face, dramatic expression, athleticism, and male nudity nod unmistakably to Classical aesthetic ideals. In Greek mythology, Atlas fought on the side of the Titans against the Olympian gods, lost, and was condemned to support the spherical vault of the heavens for eternity. His myth inspired a leitmotif in Greek and Roman architecture of figures upholding architectural superstructures. During a period of heightened contact with the Mediterranean world, the figure of Atlas was adopted in Gandhara. Repeated images of composite Atlas-like figures surrounded the base of stupas, whose solid domes can be understood as symbols for the sky.

With the skin of the Nemean lion worn as a cape over his head and shoulders, the imagery of this distinctive Atlas is conflated with that of Hercules. Hercules conquered the beast as the first of his Twelve Labors, and also briefly relieved Atlas of his duties during his penultimate Labor. While the subject of Hercules is represented in other forms of Gandharan material culture, such as a wrestler's weight now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1994.112), the only other known large stone Atlas in the form of Hercules is in the Cleveland Museum of Art (fig. 1). In comparison, the present example alludes more directly to the hero's depiction in Classical art, as the modelling of his high cheek bones, thick beard, and searching gaze draws remarkable resemblance to a monumental head of Hercules from Pergamon (fig. 2), a likeness that was also observed by Ingholt about an Atlas figurine with a similar countenance (Ingholt, Gandharan Art in Pakistan, 1951, p. 157, no. 387).

In the Gandharan context, surviving Atlas figures sculpted from stucco line stupa bases at the sites of Taxila, Hadda, and Jualian. There is a considerable number of small stone panels and figurines, yet only a few large stone Atlas sculptures are broadly-known, and originate from two dispersed sets. The first set consists of three figures of smaller scale (each approx. 40 cm high) carved in a dark grey, almost black schist, comprising the aforementioned Cleveland Herculean Atlas, an Atlas in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena (F.1975.17.17.S), and another sold by Bonhams, New York, 17 March 2014, lot 66. Atlas figures from the second set survive as a pair carved in a lighter grey schist, consisting of the present sculpture and its mate in the Peshawar Museum (Kurita, Gandharan Art, Vol. II, 1990, p. 157, fig. 453). This second pair is larger, more expressive, and better carved—truer to the Classical aesthetics of naturalism—making the de Marteau Atlas one of the two most important Gandharan Atlas figures remaining.