Seated in royal ease with one foot resting on a support and the other drawn up to support his elbow, his right hand raised to the temple while the left holds a lotus, dressed in a dhoti and sanghati and adorned with multiple necklaces, the face tilted to the side in deep thought surmounted by a turban with lotiform crest and backed by a nimbus. A devotee looks on from a lower step, his hands joined in adoration and prayer.

Provenance: From the collection of René Ronveaux (d. 1991), Belgium, probably acquired during the 1970s in the Luxembourg or Belgian trade, and thence by descent to Robert Ronveaux (b. 1955). A copy of a provenance statement, written and signed by Robert Ronveaux, dated 11 September 2023, confirming the above, accompanies this lot.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Wear, tiny nicks, small losses with associated touchups, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations, all as expected.

Weight: 2,994 g (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 26 cm (excl. stand), 31 cm (incl. stand)

With an associated metal stand. (2)

This rare type of 'Pensive Bodhisattva' originates in the Gandharan region during the Kushan period and is of extraordinary significance for further stylistic and iconographic developments throughout Asia, culminating in the iconographic type of a seated Maitreya in Korea and Japan by the 7^th century. There are three possible identifications. In the Gandharan context, historical scenes of the 'Pensive Bodhisattva' generally represent Prince Siddhartha at his First Meditation on life's sorrows. As a free-standing sculpture, in a slanting leg pose, the Bodhisattva generally holds a lotus bud, identifying him as Padmapani. In the Swat Valley context, he may be part of the Maitreya triad.

For a further discussion based on an example of a Pensive Avalokiteshvara from Mathura, see M. Lerner, The Flame and the Lotus, 1984, pp. 30-35, where the author argues for a prerequisite of this iconographic type in the ancient Gandharan region, as the pensive figures invariably wear sandals, a late Hellenistic influence otherwise uncommon in Mathuran sculpture.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related Gandhara schist figure of a pensive bodhisattva, 25.5 cm high, dated to the 3^rd century, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, accession number EAOS.26.c (fig. 1). Compare a related larger schist figure of a pensive bodhisattva, dated 2^nd-3^rd century, 49.5 cm high, formerly in the James W. and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection and now in the Art Institute of Chicago, reference number 1987.361.8.