Bodhisattva Maitreya

This typical figure of the art of Gandhara, an ancient region that occupied what is today northwest Pakistan and east Afghanistan, is a bodhisattva, one of the essential figures of Mahayana Buddhism. The bodhisattvas are those compassionate beings that have achieved enlightenment but who have temporarily renounced it in order to show the way of Buddha to all sentient beings. In this way they postpone their absolute liberation to continue in this world and help humanity. This particular example depicts the bodhisattva Maitreya, which in Mahayana Buddhism is the Buddha of the future. Unlike other bodhisattvas, the art of Gandhara represents Maitreya with a small jug with the elixir of life and with a sophisticated hairstyle like this one, in which a part of the curled hair falls over the neck and the rest is gathered in a topknot held by a string of pearls. The figure, on the other hand, carved in schist stone, takes the form of a prince, typical of the representations of the bodhisattvas. With a tunic with folds that recall the sculptures of Greco-Roman tradition, the figure stands upright on a pedestal adorned with lotus flowers. In fact, in the art of Gandhara, Buddhist thought met with different stylistic and formal traits of Hellenic tradition. In this sense, various figures, forms and iconographic motifs were passed on to the art of the region through the local cultures, heirs of the ancient Greek kingdoms established there from the campaigns of Alexander the Great from the 4th century BC.