A fine Gandhara Grey Schist Head of a Bodhisattva, ca. 2nd - 3rd century CE

This well-modeled head, with its youthful Hellenic features and wavy hair, depicts the Maitreya ascending to enlightenment. Carved life-sized and three-quarters in the round, the almost trance-like facial features are sensitively portrayed by the serene expression, slight smile of the mouth, and the lowered lids of the eyes below the gracefully arched brows. The Bodhisattva wears a fancy jeweled headdress and small mustache above generous lips.Gandharan style of Buddhist visual art developed in what is now northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan between the 1st century BC and the 7th century CE. The style, of Greco-Roman origin, seems to have flourished largely during the Kushan dynasty and was contemporaneous with an important but dissimilar school of Kushan art at Mathura (Uttar Pradesh, India). The Gandhara region had long been a crossroads of cultural influences and during the reign of the Indian emperor Ashoka (3rd century BCE), the region became the scene of intensive Buddh