The civilisation known as Gandhara, centred on the Peshwar Valley and Swat Valley in northern Pakistan and Afghanistan, originated perhaps as early as 1200 BC, but became a power in its own right around 500 BC. Strategically positioned at the crossroads of the Middle East and Asia, Gandhara became a pawn in the games of the great empires which surrounded it on all sides. First, it was the Achaemenids who dominated the region, but it was the Empire of Alexander which had the greatest cultural and political impact. After Alexander’s untimely death in 323 BC, Gandhara was conquered by the Mauryan Indians, but soon the Bactrian Greeks returned, forming an Indo-Greek Kingdom (Yavanaraja) which mixed the influences of East and West. The kingdom became a kind of client state of the Mauryans, and the Emperor Ashoka (reigned 268 BC – 232 BC) introduced Buddhism to the region. This sparked not only a philosophical and religious revolution, in which Greek mythical figures like Herakles were assimilated into the Buddhist pantheon, but also began one of the greatest and most significant artistic movements in history. Graeco-Buddhism, and its art, survived the influx of Parthians, Skythians and others, and flourished under the patronage of the Kushan Emperors, who dominated Afghanistan, northern India and Pakistan from the First until the Fourth Century AD.

Now considered among the finest art to emerge from Asia, Gandharan art broke with the aniconic traditions which accompanied early Buddhism, and began to represent the Gautama Buddha and bodhisattvas as living breathing humans. Gandharan art was noted for its sensitivity, sublime proportions, and emotiveness. It imported the masculine aesthetic of Greek art, alongside the more baroque tendencies of the Hellenistic Period, and combined them with the sensuality and feminine curves of Indian art. The outstanding masterpieces that resulted were ignored by the Western artistic tradition until the Nineteenth Century AD, when Gandharan pieces began to filter into the major museums in Europe and North America. This outstanding stucco head demonstrates the skill of the Gandharan artist in one of the characteristic mediums of Gandharan art. Stucco – an exceptionally fine plaster, based in the Gandharan case on lime and gypsum – was used to decorate temples and monasteries, and enabled the creation of figures which were rather more expressive than the somewhat programmatic representations in stone. This head depicts the Buddha as a clean-shaven youth, with plump rounded features. He is characterised by the traditional attributes of the Buddha – the top-knot (ushnisha), which denotes his wisdom, and his elongated earlobes, stretched out by the heavy gold earrings that signified his former princely class – though he lacks the forehead spot (urna) which often features in Gandharan representations. His thin eyebrows are arched in a sympathetic curve, meeting above the nose, in a nod to Indian precursors. His eyes are half-closed, emphasising his serenity, and stare out at the viewer in a welcoming gaze. His nose is slender and finely modelled, and his lips drawn in a benevolent smile. The stucco retains traces of the vibrant colours which once embellished the surface; deep red for the eyebrows and lips, black for the hair and pupils, and cobalt blue for the irises. Additionally, there are traces of gold leaf, which must once have covered the sculpture, giving the Buddha’s skin a godlike shine, and referring to one of the 32 ‘marks of greatness’ (mahāpurusa laksana) that identified him: ‘he is golden in colour, has skin like gold’ (Lakkhana Sutta DN:30).

Portraits such as this one, in stucco, are well-attested from the archaeological record. Like this example, many have wavy hair, which assimilates the Buddha to Apollo, rather than the tight curls which characterise Indian and South Asian depictions. Examples found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (13.96.4), Brooklyn Museum (1995.135), Harvard Art Museums (1998.315), the Victoria and Albert Museum (IS.315-1951) and Lucknow State Museum (47.87), display the same rounded features, wavy hair, and pursed lips. This style is associated with the city of Taxila in the Fourth Century AD, though it is possible that this particular head is later. All of the above-mentioned heads, and this example, are taken from larger stucco panels, as indicated by the broken mass of stucco at the back of the head. These panels would have covered the wall of a temple, monastery or stupa, and would have depicted scenes from the life of the Gautama Buddha. The proliferation of youthful depictions of the Buddha indicate a preference for events that took place around his enlightenment as a young man. These stucco figures were probably created in a mould, and attached to the scene with wet stucco once dried. Details such as the hair were then added later by hand.

References: examples of similar stucco heads can be found in New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art 13.96.4 and Brooklyn Museum 1995.135), Cambridge Massachusetts (Harvard Art Museums 1998.315), London (Victoria and Albert Museum IS.315-1951) and Lucknow (Lucknow State Museum 47.87).