‘This single standing figure of the Buddha was carved from schist, a soft bluish stone of clay-slate quarried in the hills to the north of Peshawar Province of north-west India (now a part of Pakistan) by a Indian sculpture on the second or third century of the present era.

The region near the Khyber Pass was once an independent kingdom known as Gandhara. It was conquered in 327-26 BC by a Greek army lead by Alexander the Great, and for about twenty years it was a colony of Greece.

This large and impressive figure clearly shows the influence which classical Greek three-dimensional statuary has had on this part of the world. The treatment of the hair below the protuberance on the top of the head is in the mature Greek manner, as are the stylized folds of the toga-like robe.

The right hand of the Buddha is raised in a pose of reassurance, while the base carries a Greek-like frieze flanked on either side by an Indio-Corinthian pilaster. The alms bowl of the Buddha in the center is worshiped by two men on either side.’ [BM]

Statue of Buddha (in Greco-Roman style), Gandhara, present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2nd - 3rd century AD

Classical type Buddha in Roman dress

2nd-3rd Century A.D.

Found in Gandhara, North India (now Pakistan)

Carved in grey schist stone

Base: Adoration of a Reliquary

Ht: 1500 mm.

Auckland Museum cat. no. 277

Mackelvie Collection

The free-standing stone statue of the Gandhara Buddha on display in the Mackelvie Collection, is arguably one of the most important cross-cultural

treasures in the Museum's collections. The legacy of Alexander the Great's conquest of the Persian Empire and his expedition to India, was the grafting of Hellenism onto the art and culture of Western Asia. In later times, Roman culture also had a profound influence on the art and architecture of the region.

The statue has a frontal pose and is the most classical type. The head has the topknot of wavy hair, or krobylos, borrowed from Classical images of the god Apollo and the face is youthful and serene.* The body has a relaxed leg visible beneath the voluminous drapery, which falls in sharp parallel folds reminiscent of contemporary statues of togaed Roman senators. The damaged aura behind the head was originally circular and the Buddha's raised right hand is missing. The front of the base is decorated with two engaged Corinthian columns supporting an ornate frieze. Placed between the columns is the popular Buddhist scene, ‘Adoration of a Reliquary’. A vessel containing a relic stands on a table under a canopy. The table is flanked on both sides by two priests in Roman dress. The sides of the base are decorated with classical palmettes.

In the 1st Century A.D. a school of Buddhist sculpture was established in the city of Gandhara. The school flourished until the Muslim invasions of

the 8th Century A.D.**

*best typified by the head of the Apollo Belvedere.

**Gandhara sculpture was influenced by the Classical cult of the colossal, typified by the giant effigies of Roman Emperors. This trend was to manifest itself in the two colossal images of Buddha at Bamiyan, on the ancient Silk Route, in modern Afghanistan, which were destroyed in 2001.