A STUCCO HEAD OF AN ASCETIC ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 3RD-5TH CENTURY 5 7/8 in. (15 cm) high Footnotes: 犍陀羅 三/五世紀 泥塑苦修者像 Published Chandreyi Basu, Displaying Many Faces: Art and Gandharan Identity: Selections from the David R. Nalin Collection, 2004, p. 69, pl. 71. Provenance David R. Nalin Collection, acquired in 1969 Modelled in stucco, this refined head depicts an ascetic with a full moustache and beard, the deeply articulated features contrasted by the linear treatment of the hair. Such naturalistic portrayals of holy men are a distinctive element of the Gandharan sculptural tradition and are sometimes associated with prototypes for the fasting Buddha. A closely related example is the head of an old ascetic in the Ashmolean Museum of Art, Oxford (Jongeward, Buddhist Art of Gandhara in the Ashmolean Museum p.137, fig. 107). For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing