TÊTE D'UN DONATEUR EN SCHISTE ANCIENNE RÉGION DU GANDHARA, CIRCA III/IVE SIÈCLETÊTE D'UN DONATEUR EN SCHISTEANCIENNE RÉGION DU GANDHARA, CIRCA III/IVE SIÈCLE24 cm (9 1/2 in.) high A SCHIST HEAD OF A DONORANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, CIRCA 3RD/4TH CENTURY 犍陀羅 約三/四世紀 片岩供養人像Provenance:With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970sThis mature donor figure, with slightly hollow cheeks, sports a distinctive tonsure, which Ingholt suggests may indicate he is a foreigner to Gandhara (Ingholt, Gandharan Art in Pakistan, 1957, pp. 161-2). These mysterious Buddhist patrons are occasionally seen in Gandharan panels, such as one sold by Bonhams, New York, 23 July 2020, lot 816. Evidence of their representation in large, free-standing sculpture, as would have been the case for the present head, is provided by a statue of one such foreign donor offering a bouquet, which was discovered at the Sahri Bahlol archeological site and is now in the Peshawar Museum (Luczanits (ed.), Gandhara, 2008, p. 336, no. 248).