Done
Berlin, Germany
Auction Details
Important Gandhara and Buddhist Sculptures
Auctionata is honored to present a unique and exceptionally rare group of approximately 40 early Buddhist sculptures with outstanding provenance. The family?s collection was founded in the 19th century by an art-loving industrialist and very open-minded entrepreneur.
The family established its exquisite and comprehensive collection in cooperation with an extensive network of private and commercial contacts. The Gandhara lots have been anchors of the collection since the 1930s, as proven by the thorough handwritten inventory. The vast majority of the documented artworks were acquired with the assistance of several notable advisors who shared close personal ties with the family. Among them are celebrities from the early 20th century, including former Iranian prime-minister Ebrahim Hakimi, and Spanish-born art dealer Lucas-Moreno, who managed a renowned art gallery in fin-de-siècle Paris.
Gandhara became a prominent ancient hub for trade, religion, and art, revealing Indo-Parthian, Indo-Scythian, Indo-Greek and Hellenistic influences alike. Life-sized representations of the Fasting Buddha (lot no. 7) inhabit a distinct position in Gandharan Buddhist art with only a few images of the Emaciated Buddha remaining. Gandharan figures of the Winged Atlas ((lot no. 3) are regularly composed in a leisurely seated position. They functioned as epistyle figures on architectural friezes. The female deity Hariti (lot no. 8) was largely popular in Gandhara, and appears to be well established by the Indo-Greek and Kushan times. Images of the future Buddha Maitreya (lot no. 13) became increasingly popular when Buddhist art spread from Gandhara to China and allude to Greco-Roman imagery. The Sini?cation of Buddhist art by the late ?fth and early sixth centuries is evident in the magnificent limestone figure of a standing Guanyin of the Northern dynasties of the 5t/6th centuries (lot no. 28).
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