Figures of Buddha in attitudes of teaching or meditation, from the south face of the main Stupa at Mohra Moradu, Stucco, 4th-5th Centuries A.D.
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Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham
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Stucco decoration comes to light in Ghandaran art late in the Kushan period and manages to surpass even the fine schist sculpture of the earlier periods both in quality and sensitivity, This is evidenced in a beautiful Buddha image from the south face of the main stupa at Mohra Moradu, in Taxila: It is the belief of some scholars that the re-emergence of a more plastic art medium than stone in Indian art indicates a rebirth or return of interest to native forms as opposed to the taste for foreign elements, which influenced earlier Ghandaran sculpture of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Taking the stylistic elements of stone sculpture, stucco sculpture then combined Guptan and Kashmiran elements to form a newly vital series of art works, the originality of which was unmatched in all Ghandaran art previously, Much of the harsh linearism common to Ghandaran geometric handling of sculpture in the round is missing from the stucco figures, and the forms themselves have been simplified to allow the artists to express in more abstract symbols the spiritual content of their images -- Taxila, Museum,
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Archives Series
Basham Collection
Date created
circa 1970s
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This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without the prior permission of the Archives Program, Australian National University.
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