The Gupta Dynasty of India (320~600) was the great empire that unified India after the Peacock Dynasty, and the Peacock and Gupta Dynasty were the only two great unified empires in Indian history established by the Indians themselves. Known as the golden age of Indian art, the Gupta era was at its peak, and Buddhist statues epitomized the perfect fusion of India's indigenous traditions and foreign influences, creating a new style of Indian national idealization, the Mathura style and the Sarnath style, marking the highest achievement of Indian classical art.
Fig. 1 5th century Buddha statue in the collection of the National Museum of India
Located on the west bank of the Yemuna River, a tributary of the Ganges River in Uttar Pradesh, India, Matula is located at the crossroads of communication connecting central and northwestern India, and in terms of location and artistic style, between Gandhara and Sarnath, it played a key role in the indianization of Gandhara's Greek Buddha statues. Mathura sculptors both respected local traditions and were adept at absorbing foreign cultures. In the second half of the 2nd century, The Matura Buddha carving began to draw on some hellenistic techniques of Gandhara carving, combined with native Indian traditions and gradually evolved into a variety of Matura Buddha statues. By the Gupta era after the 4th century, The Buddha statue sculpture of Mathura completed the Indianization of the Gandhara Buddha statue, realizing a highly perfect fusion of native Indian traditions and foreign art, creating a "wet-clothed Buddha statue" in the Matura style.
Figure 2 5th century Buddha statue partial
The 5th-century Buddha statue in the National Museum of India is now in the collection of a representative work of the Mathura style (Fig. 1). This image is a headdress with spiral hair, high flesh bun, rounded face, wide forehead, typical Indian face, eyes hanging low, round backlight behind the head, backlight from the outside to the inside in turn carved with curly grass pattern, flower beard pattern, bead pattern, the innermost lotus petal pattern, very decorative. This backlight style can better set off the detachment of the Buddha. The Buddha statue is draped in a shoulder-length robe, the slender clothing pattern is in a U-shape even from the shoulders down, and the thin gauze is close to the body, as if it is soaked with water, and the outline of the Buddha's body can be faintly seen, and its navel and knees are still faintly visible. This translucent "wet suit" effect reveals the hazy, subtle, mysterious and inner beauty of the Buddha. The Buddha statue holds the hem of the robe in his left hand and the right hand is mutilated.
Fig. 3 Statue of Shakyamuni Buddha in the early fifth century, collection of the Sarnath Museum
Another center of statue-making art in the Gupta period, Sarnath( formerly translated as Shikanoen), is said to have been the place where Shakyamuni first became a Buddha, and it is not only a famous place of Buddhist worship, but also the center of Buddha statue carving. Buddha carvings in Sarnath flourished in the early 5th century and quickly reached their peaks. A statue of Shakyamuni Buddha in the Sarnath Museum is a typical example of sarnath in the Gupta period (Fig. 3). This resembles a snail hair, and the bun is in the shape of a bun. There is a circular backlight behind the head, and two inward flying sky on each side above the backlight. The face is plump and round, the eyes are low, the face is smiling, and the nose bridge is pointed, which is typical of the Indian face. Sitting on a square pedestal, the center of the pedestal is carved with erlu listening to the sutra, and on the left and right sides are carved five disciples of the Buddha's teachings and a woman with a child, who kneel reverently to listen to the Buddha's first words. The Buddha is draped in a shoulder-length robe, which is thinner than the robe of The Matura statue and is almost completely transparent, only at the neckline, cuffs, ankles, and the hem of the robe that is scattered above the pedestal in a fan-shaped manner. The Buddha's hands are knotted on the chest.
Fig. 4 In the early fifth century, the statue of Shakyamuni Buddha was said in part
From the above two examples, it is not difficult to see the remarkable characteristics of the art of Matura and Sarnath statues: the figure of Mathura Buddha is evenly distributed from top to bottom in a U-shape, and a thin gauze garment is close to the body, as if it is soaked with water, and the outline of the Buddha's body can only be faintly seen, showing a translucent "wet suit" effect; while the robe of the statue of Sarnat behaves like a "naked body", which is only expressed at the neckline, cuffs, ankles, etc. The statues of this "wet suit" effect and the "nude" effect are different features of the two portrait styles of Mathura and Sarnath in the Gupta period. Their common feature is that the heads of statues in the Gupta period are decorated with round headlights.
The most prominent contribution of the statue art of the Gupta period in India is to integrate Western culture and India's native culture while accepting the influence of Western culture, further highlighting the Indification of statues, and opening up a pure Indian statue model.
Figure 5 Buddha statue in Cave 259 of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes
Figure 6 Statue of Shakyamuni Buddha in Cave 169 of the Bingling Temple Grottoes in Linxia, Gansu
Figure 7 The statue of Shakyamuni Buddha on the south wall of Cave 19 of the Yungang Grottoes
Article source: "Collector" 201904 issue "On the Artistic Characteristics of Gupta in the Statues of the Southern and Northern Dynasties" Author: Zhao Ling