The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

ART UNDER THE KESHAN'S: GANDHARA 133
72. The Nirvana of Buddha from Loriyan Tarisai.
Calcutta, Indian Museum
Siddhartha, the subject is more like a dionysian
scene. The carving is characterized by the isolation
of the figures against a plain background,
although the forms themselves are related by
their postures and gestures. These features, together
with the fully rounded carving of the
individual forms, remind us of Flavian or Hadrianic
reliefs and other examples ultimately
based on the Greek relief style of the fifth century
B.C. 15 It may well be that this relief and
manv others in the same stvle - some with actual
pagan subject-matter - should
be considered
the very earliest examples of the Gandhara
school, and that only somewhat later
was this
type replaced by imitations of the more typically
Roman illusionistic manner. 1 "
A typical Gandhara relief that illustrates the
more complicated aspects of the style is a large
panel, nearly two feet high, representing the
Nirvana of Buddha [72]. At first glance it might
almost be mistaken for a Roman carving of the
time of Septimus Severus. The many tiers of