GANDHARAN SCHIST HEAD OF A BUDDHACa. 100-300 AD. A schist stone head of a Buddha. He is depicted with wavey hair gathered up in a topknot above a headband. His face characteristically has drooping, half-closed eyes, characteristic of his depictions under the Kushan Dynasty, and he is shown with a slender, wavey moustache above his full lips. His forehead is decorated with the dot called the Urna, which represented the third eye that saw beyond the material limits of the world. The Buddha form was used to depict both the original Buddha Gautama as well as anyone who became a Buddha by achieving Nirvana. The Buddha was not expressed in sculpture in Gandhara before the 1st century AD, before which he was only alluded to with symbols. From this time though, Gandharan art depicted Buddhas with a captivating mix of traditional Buddhist iconography and style, and the naturalism and soft features of Classical art, since this region was greatly influenced by the conquests of Alexander the Great many centuries earlier and the subsequent Greek settlers. For more information on Gandharan art, see Jongeward, D. (2019). Buddhist Art Of Gandhara in the Ashmolean Museum. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Size: L:390mm / W:265m; 12.90kg Provenance: From the collection of a London gentleman; formerly acquired in early 2000s in France; previously in 1970s European collection.