One of the foremost essays featured is an overview of the Buddha’s life in Gandharan art as a major theme within the exhibit, but also within the art period in general. With “countless episodes in small- to middle-format reliefs” and “thousands of examples [depicting] the life of Shakyamuni, the Buddha of our era, on earth, from cradle to grave” it is not hard to understand why a firm understanding of the life of Buddha is essential to the critique of Gandharan art, especially as so many relief scenes have been parted from their context.1“The large number of episodes that have been transferred into images, as well as the composition, iconography, and style of reliefs” is a topic to be explored in depth, however, not only as a trademark of Gandharan cultural, but as “something completely new in the Indian Buddhist tradition of art.”1With their trademark chronological arrangement, pillar separations, and unique features, like false dormers, stupa emerge within this period as the main source of Buddhist life representation, in turn tying together the Narratives and Architectural Contexts and Buddha and Bodhisattvas sections of the physical exhibit in a more direct manner.2Additionally, the essay seeks to define the Buddha in overlapping instead of individual terms, utilizing the written format and the chronological nature of the essay to draw attention the Buddha’s usual “meditative posture, sitting cross-legged; he seems to communicate with the observer of the image rather than with the figures surrounding him in the composition.”1With common elements highlighted, such as the simplicity of backdrop and the motion of figures surrounding the Buddha, the viewer is more prepared to be an active viewer of Gandharan art and draw comparisons between relief images.
- Ed. Proser, Adriana. The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara.
- “The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara.” Asia Society.