Torso of a Buddha

The youthful male torso is characteristic of the important Mathura school that flourished in northern India under the rule of the Kushan dynasty. Carved from the mottled red sandstone found around Mathura, it demonstrates the skill of the Indian sculptor in eliciting from hard stone the soft contours of a youthful body beneath transparent robes. The absence of this fragment’s head and right hand (which would have been held in a specific gesture, or 'mudra') prevents its precise identification.

The Asian Collections, AGNSW, 2003, pg.27.

There were two major centres of Kushan culture: the region of Gandhara where the art shows the impact of Hellenistic and Roman sculpture; and the city of Mathura where the art displays a traditional Indian aesthetic, as demonstrated in this torso. This figure wears a transparent robe draped over the left shoulder, with the folds of the robe gathered and carried over the closed fist. The lower garment is clearly decorated with a pattern of flowers. The modelled belly, deep navel and the aureoles of the chest are softly articulated.

Excerpts from Art Gallery Handbook, 1999. pg. 289.