Gandhara - Art

Art

Gandhāra is noted for the distinctive Gandhāra style of Buddhist art, which developed out of a merger of Greek, Syrian, Persian, and Indian artistic influence. This development began during the Parthian Period (50 BC – AD 75). Gandhāran style flourished and achieved its peak during the Kushan period, from the 1st to the 5th century. It declined and suffered destruction after invasion of the White Huns in the 5th century.

Stucco as well as stone was widely used by sculptors in Gandhara for the decoration of monastic and cult buildings. Stucco provided the artist with a medium of great plasticity, enabling a high degree of expressiveness to be given to the sculpture. Sculpting in stucco was popular wherever Buddhism spread from Gandhara - India, Afghanistan, Central Asia and China.

• Female spouted figure, terracotta, Charsadda, Gandhara (3rd–1st century BC)

• Mother Goddess (fertility divinity), derived from the Indus Valley tradition, terracotta, Sar Dheri, Gandhara (1st century BC)

• Prince Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni (1st–2nd century)

• Standing Buddha (1st–2nd century)

• Buddha head (2nd century)

• Buddha head (4th–6th century)

• Buddha in acanthus capital

• The Greek god Atlas, supporting a Buddhist monument, Hadda

• The Bodhisattva Maitreya (2nd century)

• Wine-drinking and music, Hadda (1st–2nd century)

• Maya's white elephant dream (2nd–3rd century)

• The birth of Siddharta (2nd–3rd century)

• The Great Departure from the Palace (2nd–3rd century)

• The end of ascetism (2nd–3rd century)

• The Buddha preaching at the Deer Park in Sarnath (2nd–3rd century)

• Scene of the life of the Buddha (2nd–3rd century)

• The death of the Buddha, or parinirvana (2nd–3rd century)

• A sculpture from Hadda, (3rd century)

• The Bodhisattva and Chandeka, Hadda (5th century)

• The Buddha and Vajrapani under the guise of Herakles

• Hellenistic decorative scrolls from Hadda, Afghanistan

• Hellenistic scene, Gandhara (1st century)

• A stone plate (1st century).

• "Laughing boy" from Hadda