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THURSDAY 17 DECEMBER 2015AT 10:00 AM
A Journey
of Initiation through
the Golden Age
of Ancient India:
Gupta Art
Viewing
Du samedi 12 décembre 2015
Au mercredi 16 décembre 2015
EXPERTS
Cabinet PORTIER & Associés
26 boulevard Poissonnière 75009 Paris
+33 1 48 00 03 41
[email protected]
PIASA
118 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris - France
PRESS
Isabelle de Puysegur
Tel / fax : +33 1 45 49 17 97
[email protected]
Press Release
piasa.fr
PIASA’s sale of Asian Art on 17 December 2015 will include a very
rare 5th century Head of Buddha in pink sandstone from the Gupta
period – the golden age of Ancient India.
‘Virtue as the path to beauty’ is how V.S Agrawala evoked Gupta Art in his specialist book on the subject,
published in 1949. This art was the fruit of Jainist, Buddhist and Hindu influences, and flourished
between the 4th–6th centuries A.D. in northern India (in the latterday states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh).
Despite its thirst for conquest, the Gupta Empire offered a prosperous and favourable climate for the
development of literature, science and art, which enjoyed a golden age scaling heights of complexity
and refinement. Religious architecture developed and, with it, sculpture to adorn the empire’s temples,
palaces and stupas. These buildings were often in wood and brick, and have suffered from the ravages
of time, but their stone sculptures have survived to bear witness to a brilliant lost civilization.
Three religions co-existed in the Gupta Empire, including Buddhism. Portrayals of Buddha conformed
both to the iconographical cannons of Buddhist art, like ushnisha (the oval protuberance at the top of
the head) and elongated ear-lobes, and to the emerging artistic traditions of Gupta art, inspired by the
perfection of Nature: eyebrows similar to chinaberry blossom, eyelids in the form of lotus petals, a nose
like a sesame flower and bimba-fruit lips.
Gupta sculptors broke with previous representations of Buddha, shown with his eyes open on the world,
to show him instead with eyes half-closed. They sought to translate spiritual perfection into aesthetic
terms, and showed the sage after the Awakening, deep in meditation with his gaze turned in on himself.
In the words of S. Kramrich, ‘the form translates exactly the meaning of the name.’ Sculpted faces of
Buddha from the Gupta age constitute one of the most accomplished and elevated expressions not just
of Buddhist art but of Buddhist spirituality itself: noble and serene, as reflected in this remarkable head,
with its tightly curled hair, which has already prompted keen interest from international collectors and
connoisseurs.
Alice Jossaume
Expert
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INDIA - GUPTA Period (5th century A.D.)
Head of Buddha with eyes half-closed
and tightly curled hair
Sandstone, h. 25cm
(some damage)
Provenance : Succession de M. X.
Est. €50,000-60,000
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INDIA - GUPTA Period (5th century A.D.)
Head of Buddha in pink sandstone
Detail
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Thursday 17 December 2015 at 10am
Asian Art
Experts
Cabinet PORTIER & Associés
26 boulevard Poissonnière 75009 Paris
+33 1 48 00 03 41
[email protected]
PRESS CONTACT
Isabelle de Puysegur
Tel/fax : +33 1 45 49 17 97
[email protected]
PIASA CONTACT
Marie-Amélie Pignal
[email protected]
Carole Siméons
+33 1 53 34 12 39
[email protected]
Viewing
Du samedi 12 décembre 2015
Au mercredi 16 décembre 2015
PIASA
118 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris
France
www.piasa.fr
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