Elephant Head (fragment) – Gandhara, Pakistan

Elephant head (fragment) – Gandhara, Pakistan
Elephant head in schist typical of Gandhâra composition and “Greco-Buddhist Art”.
We can then think of the bronze horses of Constantinople which, in a certain way, are similar in their apprehension of sculpted volumes. According to specialists, Gandhara and the Buddhist art associated with it correspond to the region surrounding the Peshawar valley.
Under the reign of the Kushans, a dynasty of Iranian origin which dominated a vast empire extending from Central Asia to the Ganges valley, we saw the emergence of two great schools of sculpture, almost contemporary: Mathura in the south, in an aesthetic typically Indian, and Gandhâra, more marked by Hellenism, due to the settlement in this region of descendants of the companions of Alexander the Great.

REGION: Pakistan
MATERIAL: stone
PERIOD: Gandhara culture
DIMENSION: 14 x 11 x 6 cm

(Base)
inventory number: AS042