9th Mar, 2023 13:00

TWO-DAY AUCTION - Fine Chinese Art / 中國藝術集珍 / Buddhism & Hinduism

 
  Lot 235
 

235

A PINK SANDSTONE STELE DEPICTING BUDDHA, MATHURA, 2ND-3RD CENTURY

Sold for €13,000

including Buyer's Premium


Lot details

Expert’s note: Due to the front side of the base section as well as parts of the legs and arms protruding slightly further than the Buddha’s face, his nose has remained mostly unscathed despite the stele obviously having fallen down from its original place of worship. The excellent and fully original state of preservation of this Buddha’s face makes the statue an extremely rare example of its kind.

North India, Uttar Pradesh. Of rectangular form with an arched top, finely and deeply carved in high relief, depicting Buddha seated in dhyanasana atop a tiered square base supported by three lions. His left hand raised in abhaya mudra and his right resting on his leg, flanked by chauri bearers below flying apsaras. He is wearing a richly pleated robe draped over his left shoulder. His serene face with almond-shaped eyes below arched brows and a circular urna, the hair with a neatly incised whorled ushnisha, backed by a sun-form halo.

Provenance: An important private collection of a distinguished gentleman in Milan, Italy, assembled in the 1990s and early 2000s. Collection of Leonardo Vigorelli, Bergamo, acquired from the above. Leonardo Vigorelli is a retired Italian art dealer and noted collector, specializing in African and ancient Hindu-Buddhist art. After studying anthropology and decades of travel as well as extensive field research in India, the Himalayan region, Southeast Asia, and Africa, he founded the Dalton Somaré art gallery in Milan, Italy, which today is being run by his two sons.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Wear, minor losses, small nicks, light scratches, few structural cracks, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations.

Dimensions: Height 79.5 cm

Literature comparison:
Compare the closely related pink sandstone stele of Buddha, known as the “Katra stele”, dated end of 1st century AD, in the Government Museum, Mathura, illustrated in James C. Harle, The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent, Yale University Press, 1994, p. 63, no. 43 (where it is dated to the early 2nd century). Compare a closely related sandstone stele of Buddha, dated 110 AD, in the National Museum, New Delhi, object number L.55.25. Compare a related pink sandstone stele of Buddha, 93 cm high, dated c. 131 AD, in the Kimbell Art Museum, accession number AP 1986.06.

Expert's note (added 18.02.2023): The Katra stele from the Government Museum in Mathura measures 69 cm in height, over 10 cm smaller than the present lot. According to Roy C. Craven, there has been some discussion that the inscription on the Katra example is later added, as it erroneously identifies the figure of Buddha as a Bodhisattva. While it may at first seem disappointing that the present lot doesn't have an inscription, perhaps it just shouldn't and the Katra stele shouldn't either.

 

Expert’s note: Due to the front side of the base section as well as parts of the legs and arms protruding slightly further than the Buddha’s face, his nose has remained mostly unscathed despite the stele obviously having fallen down from its original place of worship. The excellent and fully original state of preservation of this Buddha’s face makes the statue an extremely rare example of its kind.

North India, Uttar Pradesh. Of rectangular form with an arched top, finely and deeply carved in high relief, depicting Buddha seated in dhyanasana atop a tiered square base supported by three lions. His left hand raised in abhaya mudra and his right resting on his leg, flanked by chauri bearers below flying apsaras. He is wearing a richly pleated robe draped over his left shoulder. His serene face with almond-shaped eyes below arched brows and a circular urna, the hair with a neatly incised whorled ushnisha, backed by a sun-form halo.

Provenance: An important private collection of a distinguished gentleman in Milan, Italy, assembled in the 1990s and early 2000s. Collection of Leonardo Vigorelli, Bergamo, acquired from the above. Leonardo Vigorelli is a retired Italian art dealer and noted collector, specializing in African and ancient Hindu-Buddhist art. After studying anthropology and decades of travel as well as extensive field research in India, the Himalayan region, Southeast Asia, and Africa, he founded the Dalton Somaré art gallery in Milan, Italy, which today is being run by his two sons.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Wear, minor losses, small nicks, light scratches, few structural cracks, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations.

Dimensions: Height 79.5 cm

Literature comparison:
Compare the closely related pink sandstone stele of Buddha, known as the “Katra stele”, dated end of 1st century AD, in the Government Museum, Mathura, illustrated in James C. Harle, The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent, Yale University Press, 1994, p. 63, no. 43 (where it is dated to the early 2nd century). Compare a closely related sandstone stele of Buddha, dated 110 AD, in the National Museum, New Delhi, object number L.55.25. Compare a related pink sandstone stele of Buddha, 93 cm high, dated c. 131 AD, in the Kimbell Art Museum, accession number AP 1986.06.

Expert's note (added 18.02.2023): The Katra stele from the Government Museum in Mathura measures 69 cm in height, over 10 cm smaller than the present lot. According to Roy C. Craven, there has been some discussion that the inscription on the Katra example is later added, as it erroneously identifies the figure of Buddha as a Bodhisattva. While it may at first seem disappointing that the present lot doesn't have an inscription, perhaps it just shouldn't and the Katra stele shouldn't either.

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