- Museum number
- 1900,0414.13
- Description
-
Stupa drum panel showing a drinking scene or a ceremony. The female figure, who now appears in the centre of the panel, wears a 'chiton' lying spread over her feet, a mantle or 'himation', a collar, a multiple bracelet and a cross-hatched wreath headdress. She stands almost frontally with her head to her right and her right hand raised to her neck and shoulder, while her left hand holds the mantle. Two other female figures, similarly dressed, are more tightly wrapped in their mantle, which forms a sleeve for the right arm. Their heads turn in the same direction and one shows a large chignon at the back ornamented with, or composed of, flowers.
Four male figures alternate with the females and in differing stances face in the opposite direction to them. Three wear a short girt tunic of 'exomis type' with scalloped edges turned down on the chest; the two outer figures carry bowls, that of the figure on the left tapering into the hand and with a lotus-petal motif from the bottom, while the first bearded figure to his left carries a looped garland. The portly and bearded male figure wears a short-sleeved 'chiton' and the 'himation' wound round the left arm in the same way as the women's, and a fillet round his head. The figure on the right turns away and faces a damaged edge. A plain fillet defines the bottom.
- Production date
- 1stC-2ndC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 4.80 centimetres
-
Height: 13.70 centimetres
-
Width: 34.30 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
-
The composition of this very Western piece, on which the garments may properly be given their Greek names, harmoniously combines the figures and the spaces between them, and so far as they are undamaged all the figures are notable for their fine linear carving, the neat outlines of the features and the curved planes of the heads and legs. Although empty, the eyes are sharply outlined and the faces carry hints of expression; the central female would seem to be almost smiling, while her companion on her left has a solemn considering look.
The suggestion that this panel represents the Presentation of the Bride to the Bodhisattva is recorded without contradiction or enthusiasm by Marshall. If such an identification is to be hazarded, the portly bearded figure may be the father of the bride or bridegroom, the leaner figure with a garland the family priest, and the woman between them Yaśodharā.
-
Zwalf 1985
By tradition the Bodhisattva married and this relief, with a woman standing in the centre, is interpreted as the presentation of the bride; on her left may be the family priest or her father. The model was perhaps a secular drinking scene. The figures at both ends of this relief seem to hold bowls, and one on the bride's right may have a bunch of lotuses.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
Buddhism: Art and Faith (BM 1985)
1994, Kyoto National Museum, Masterpieces of Buddhist and Hindu Sculpture from the British Museum
1994, Tokyo, Tobu Museum of Art, Masterpieces of Buddhist and Hindu Sculpture from the British Museum
Exhibition: "Alexander the Great: East-West Cultural Contacts from Greece to Japan", Tokyo National Museum, 5 Aug-5 Oct 2003; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, 18 Oct-21 Dec 2003
- Condition
- 1.Green-grey schist, broken, chipped and abraded.
2.Top and bottom flat and smooth and with rectangular tenon; left side flat and smooth, rather narrow and perhaps for slotting into an adjacent stone; right side irregularly broken.
3.Back mainly flat and with kharostht inscriptions.
4.Lightly curved in section.
- Associated events
- Associated Event: Presentation of the Bride (probably)
- Acquisition date
- 1900
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1900,0414.13
