† AN EXCEEDINGLY RARE AND EXCEPTIONAL LIMESTONE FIGURE OF BUDDHA, AMARAVATI, ANDHRA PRADESH, IKSHVAKU DYNASTY, 225-325 CE

Expert’s note: During the Ikshvaku period (c. 225-325 CE) Andhra’s ports were deeply engaged in Indo-Roman trade. Excavations at Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda have yielded Roman gold aurei of Tiberius, Antoninus Pius, and Faustina the Elder, along with imported Roman glassware and amphora fragments. More recent surveys continue to confirm stray Roman coins in the region, underscoring sustained contact. In this milieu, it seems plausible that Ikshvaku Dynasty ateliers and sculptors absorbed classicizing traits through both Gandharan prototypes and maritime exchange with the Roman Empire.

The present limestone Buddha, with its crisp sanghati folds and rather naturalistic, almost sober presence, reflects precisely this Greco-Roman current.

On the Buddhist side, the figure displays the four auspicious marks (lakṣaṇas) of Buddhahood: the spiral of hair on the forehead (ūrṇā), tight clockwise spirals of hair all over his head (all that remained after renouncing his royal status and cutting his hair), swelling of the cranium (uṣṇīṣa), and distended earlobes, a legacy of the heavy jewelry he wore as a prince. A fifth feature, the treatment of the eyes, is not described in Buddhist texts. However, observe how the pupils appear to roll back into the skull, indicating the Buddha is in a deep meditative state.

Finely sculpted in the round, standing in samabhanga and wearing a deeply fluted monastic robe which dramatizes the figure’s gesture while precisely mirroring how the robe envelopes the body, drawn taut against the leg and hip and across the torso to the opposite shoulder before cascading from the raised arm to the ankles. The face with a serene expression, with wide eyes under arched brows, and full bow-shaped lips forming a calm smile, flanked by elongated earlobes. The hair arranged in neatly carved individual snail-shell curls rising over the gently domed ushnisha.

Provenance: The Phillips Family Collection, Lawrence and Shirley Phillips, and thence by descent to Michael Phillips. Michael Phillips (born 1943) is an Academy Award-winning film producer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, his parents were Lawrence and Shirley Phillips, noted New York dealers in Asian fine arts, selling to the Met, the LACMA, the Chicago Art Institute, and the British Museum among others. Michael Phillips is a collector of Asian art himself, particularly Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan sculpture. His most important films include The Sting (winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1973), Taxi Driver (winning the Palme d’Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival), and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Obvious losses, expected fissures and age cracks, small chips, signs of weathering and erosion, and encrustations.

Weight: 42 kg (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 69 cm (excl. stand), 78.8 cm (incl. stand)

Mounted to an associated stand. (2)

Figurative representations of the Buddha emerged in southern India as the preoccupation with serial narration in stupa panels slowly shifted to the veneration of the icon. This coalesced in the third century under the energetic patronage of the Ikshvaku dynasty, as witnessed by this freestanding sculpture. Although still positioned frontally, the icon’s fully sculpted back confirms that it was intended to be viewed in the round. Most of these figures have been discovered in the semicircular brick shrines for which they were made, placed in the apse to allow circumambulation by devotees. See a closely related figure of a standing Buddha, Nagarjunakonda Archaeological Site, Andhra Pradesh, dated 1^st-3^rd century.

The Great Stupa at Amaravati, in what is now Andhra Pradesh, was one of the most important Buddhist sites in India from the Mauryan period. The stupa was located on the banks of the Krishna River, close to the ancient city of Dharanikota. The kings of the Satavahana dynasty were instrumental in the refurbishing of the Great Stupa between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD. Limestone was shipped upriver and used for much of the building.

Dharanikota was an important port city and part of the ancient trade route between Europe, the Middle East, South, and Southeast Asia. The influence of interactions between these cultures is seen in the sculpture and architecture from this region. "It combined a highly original sculptural aesthetic with extraordinary craftsmanship..." (Robert Knox, Amaravati: Buddhist Sculpture from the Great Stupa, London: British Museum Press, 1992, p. 9). Sculptures of the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas from Amaravati were unique in their expression, though Greco-Roman influences could be seen in the treatment of the drapery.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related limestone figure of Buddha, Ikshvaku Period, Andhra Pradesh, dated to the 3^rd century, 101 cm high, in the Archaeological Museum ASI, Amaravati, and exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE–400 CE, 17 July -13 November 2023, and in the National Museum of Korea, 22 December 2023-14 April 2024. Compare a closely related limestone Buddha, Ikshvaku Period, Andhra Pradesh, dated to the 3^rd century, 119.4 cm high, in the State Museum Hyderabad, and exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE–400 CE, 17 July -13 November 2023, and in the National Museum of Korea, 22 December 2023-14 April 2024.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 20 March 2012, lot 29
Price: USD 74,000 or approx. EUR 89,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A limestone head of Buddha, India, Amaravati, 2^nd-3^rd century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling and similar facial expression, coiled hair, and rounded features. Note the size (24.7 cm).

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 20 March 2012, lot 28
Price: USD 86,500 or approx. EUR 104,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A limestone torso of Buddha, India, Amaravati, 2^nd century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling and similar deeply incised voluminous pleated folds and the muscular built. Note the size (95.2 cm).