TÊTE D'UN DONATEUR EN SCHISTE ANCIENNE RÉGION DU GANDHARA, CIRCA III/IVE SIÈCLE 24 cm (9 1/2 in.) high Footnotes: A SCHIST HEAD OF A DONOR ANCIENT 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 1970s This 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). For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com