NORTHWEST PAKISTAN OR AFGHANISTAN.

GANDHARA, 4TH - 5TH CENTURY AD.

HADDA STYLE.

H. 18.5 CMS, 7 ¼ INS.

A delightful terracotta head of a Bodhisattva wearing an elaborate diadem with pentagonal designs representing gold repoussé plaques above a braided band; the hair in wavy lines, the face well-proportioned and the eyes cast down in meditation, a well-formed nose above a sensitive mouth.

The use of stucco and terracotta as a substitute for the grey schist of many early Gandhara sculptures led to a greater freedom of expression and innovation. For a similar terracotta head from the Robert Ellsworth collection please see fig. 199 in Deborah E. Klimburg-Salter, Buddha in Indien, Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, 1995. For a terracotta Bodhisattva head with similar repoussé plaques, see catalogue no. 15 in Treasures from the Silk Road: Devotion, Conquest and Trade along Asia’s highways, Spink, 1999.