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

THE ART OF KASHMIR
Hadda. The heads of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas,
and lay personages from this and other eighthcentury
sites are in a style equivalent to the last
phase of Gandhara sculpture, in which the
Classical types have been endowed with a
certain sensuousness and warmth by the infiltration
of the Indian Gupta style. Actually, the
nearest equivalent for this phase of Kashmir
sculpture is to be found in the semi-Classical,
semi-Indian figurines in terra-cotta from the
seventh-century monastery of Fondukistan in
Afghanistan [124].
5
A head from Ushkur in the Lahore Museum
is typical of this early phase of sculpture in
Kashmir [143]. It represents the same rather
successful fusion of Late Antique and Indian
ideals that has been noted above. The free and
impressionistic treatment of the hair and the
softly expressive mouth remind us of the
Gandhara stuccoes from Taxila and Hadda,
while the arching brows and lotiform eyes are
certainly Indian and correspond closely to the
Kushan and Gupta styles. Another resemblance
to late Gandhara developments is perhaps the
suggestion of a 'wistful' expression and a perfect
serenity and gentleness that characterize this
whole phase of Kashmir sculpture.
The sculpture of the later Brahmanical
period of art in Kashmir is represented by
numerous examples of bronze statuettes of
Hindu deities which present in varying degrees
the same admixture of Classical and Indian
elements notable in the architecture of the same
centuries. 6
Within recent years, a large number of bronze
and brass Buddhist images, mostly unpublished,
presumably of Kashmiri origin, have appeared
on the Western art market. Some show a
marked resemblance to the Mannerist style of
Fondukistan, and presumably are to be dated in
the seventh or eighth century. The stray finds
of Hindu marble carving from Kashmir seem
to be related to similar types found in the region
of Kabul - most likely from the period of
Lalitaditva in the eishth centurv.