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Asian Art :
Gandharan Artefacts : Gandharan Stucco Head
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Gandharan Stucco Head - AM.0225
Origin: Central Asia
Circa: 100
AD
to 400
AD
Dimensions:
6.75" (17.1cm) high
Collection: Asian Art
Style: Gandharan
Medium: Stucco
£9,000.00
Location: Great Britain
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| Photo Gallery |
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| Description |
Gandhara was an ancient kingdom which
encompassed the Peshawar valley in the
northwestern region of today-Pakistan and the
Jalalabad district of modern-day eastern
Afghanistan. During the Achaemenid and the
Hellenistic period, its capital was the city of
Charsadda, 30 km away from modern-day
Peshawar, though in about 127 AD the capital city
was moved to Peshawar by orders of the Kushan
emperor Kanishka the Great.
One proposed origin of the name Gandhara
derives from the Sanskrit word gandha, which
translates as "perfume" and could be referring to
the spices and aromatic herbs which the
inhabitants of the area traded and with which
they anointed themselves, though a number of
contemporary authors have connected Gandhara
to the modern name of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s
second largest city.
By about 380 BC the Persian hold on the
Gandhara region had much weakened, with the
inevitable result of a number of small kingdoms to
spring up in the area.
In the winter of 327 BC, Alexander the Great,
after having already conquered the Persian
Empire, invited all the chieftains in the remaining
five Achaemenid satraps to submit to his
authority. Ambhi, then ruler of Taxila in the former
Hindush satrapy complied, but the remaining
tribes and clans in the former satraps of
Gandhara, Arachosia, Sattagydia and Gedrosia
rejected Alexander's offer. Within a relatively
short period of time Alexander and his army
annihilated every resistance and decimated the
population of all the local tribes who had initiated
a fierce resistance against him.
After conquering Gandhara and solidifying his
supply line back to Bactria, Alexander combined
his forces with the King Ambhi of Taxila and
crossed the River Indus in July 326 BC to begin
the Archosia (Punjab) campaign. Alexander
founded several new settlements in Gandhara,
Punjab and Sindh and nominated officers as
Satraps of the new provinces. After the death of
Alexander the Great in 323 BC, Gandhara was
acquired from the Greeks by Chandragupta
Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire in
ancient India. Ashoka, grandson of
Chandragupta, became one of the greatest Indian
rulers, embraced Buddhism and promoted this
religion throughout his Empire.
The decline of the Maurya Empire left the area
open to Greco-Bactrian invasions though around
140 BC the Central Asians Kushans overran
Bactria and ended the Greek rule in the area. By
90 BC the Parthians had taken control of what is
now Eastern Iran and proceeded putting an end
to the last remnants of Greek rule in today’s
Afghanistan, with eventually an Indo-Parthian
dynasty succeeding in taking control of
Gandhara.
The Kushan period is considered the Golden
Period of Gandhara. Peshawar Valley and Taxila
are littered with ruins of stupas and monasteries
of this period. Gandharan art flourished and
produced some of the best pieces of Indian
sculpture
A very specific style of mostly Buddhist visual art
slowly became evident and developed in the
area, making excellent use of its Greek origins
between the 1st century BC and the 7th century
AD. During the reign of the Indian emperor
Ashoka (3rd century BC), the region became the
scene of intensive Buddhist missionary activity.
And in the 1st century BC, rulers of the Kushan
empire, which included Gandhara, maintained a
series of contacts with Rome. In its interpretation
of Buddhist legends, the Gandhara art school
adopted many of its techniques from Classical
Roman art, at the same time incorporating a
number of decorative motifs, which include vine
scrolls, cherubs bearing garlands, tritons, and
centaurs, though the basic iconography, however,
remained Indian.
Gandharan culptures were originally painted and
gilded, with the materials used for them being
green phyllite and gray-blue mica schist stone,
which are both endemic to the area and are in
general used to the earlier phase of Gandharan
art, with stucco becoming increasingly in use and
then prevalent after the 3rd century AD.
- (AM.0225)
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