The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Bulletin

Standing Bodhisattva Maitreya
Pakistan (Gandhara region), about late znd-early 3rd century
Gray schist
Height, 64/4 in. (i63.2 cm)
Purchase, The Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust Gift, I991
1991.75
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The strategic location of Gandhara (today parts of Pakistan and
Afghanistan)-along the crossroads from the Mediterranean
through ancient Bactria to northern India and China via Central
Asia-gave it tremendous military and commercial significance.
Once an eastern extension of Alexander the Great's empire,
Gandhara throughout its long history attracted many different
peoples-among them Seleucids, Bactrians, Indians, Romans,
and Sasanians-all of whom, in varying degrees, left their
cultural imprint on the region. It was under the Kushans,
however, a nomadic people of Scythian origin (or who merged
with the Scythians), that Gandhara achieved its greatest glory.
The Kushan rulers were Buddhist converts-a fact that, coupled
with the classical legacy of Alexander's cultural heirs and
ongoing contact with the Mediterranean world, led to a unique
art form. This marriage of Buddhist iconography and sculptural
styles markedly dependent upon Hellenistic and Roman
prototypes sets the art of Gandhara apart from that of all
other cultures.
Gandharan styles and iconography are essential not only
for the understanding of Buddhist art in India and the rest of
southern Asia from around the second century on, but also
for the arts of the Far East, from China to Japan.
A major gap in our collection has been the lack of a large,
important Gandharan sculpture, and the acquisition of this
magnificent bodhisattva fills that void. The most popular
image in Gandhara, after representations of the Buddha,
is the bodhisattva, a being who had accumulated sufficient
merit and wisdom to attain nirvana and escape the cycle of
death and rebirth but chose to remain on earth to help others
achieve salvation. Represented here is the bodhisattva Maitreya,
the messianic deity who will become the Buddha for the next
great world age. Maitreya is identified by a fragment of the
sacred-water flask held in his left hand and his characteristic
double-loop topknot, reminiscent of the Hellenistic krobilos
worn by the Apollo Belvedere.
ML
Right
Standing Nagaraja (Serpent King)
India (Uttar Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh), Gupta period, about
mid-5th century
Red sandstone
Height, 453/4 in. ( i6.2 cm)
Anonymous Gift, in honor of Anthony Gardner, I991
I991.83.1
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