This sculpture and the triangular side relief (13.96.19) are part of a set of twenty-one panels that embellished the stairway of a stupa, likely on the western end of the Swat Valley. The treatment of the anatomy of these athletic men is interesting in terms of both the naturalism and schematization of the musculature. The oars they carry and the acanthus leaves that appear to grow out of their bodies suggest that they are marine deities.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Stair Riser with Marine Deities or Boatmen
Date:ca. 1st century
Culture:Pakistan (ancient region Gandhara (Swat Valley?)
Medium:Serpentinite
Dimensions:H. 6 5/8 in. (16.8 cm); W. 17 in. (43.2 cm)
Classification:Sculpture
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1913
Object Number:13.96.21
Marking: Mason's mark in the center of the lower molding
[ Colonel M. C. Cooke-Collis , England, ca. 1882 until 1913; sold to MMA ]
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Kushan Sculpture," November 13, 1985–January 5, 1986.
New York. Asia Society. "Kushan Sculpture," February 13, 1986–April 6, 1986.
Seattle Art Museum. "Kushan Sculpture," May 13, 1986–July 13, 1986.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West," October 3, 2000–January 14, 2001.
Barcelona. Casa Àsia. "Divine Presence: Arts of India and the Himalayas," March 15, 2003–June 22, 2003.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Pala-Sena Period," 2007.
Behrendt, Kurt. "The Buddha and the Gandharan Classical Tradition." Arts of Asia 47, no. 2 (March–April 2017). pp. 65–75, figs. 4, 5.
Breck, Joseph. "Greco-Buddhist Sculpture." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 8, no. 6 (June 1913). p. 137.
Ingholtm, Harald, and Islay Lyons. Gandharan Art in Pakistan. New York: Pantheon Books, 1957.
Lippe, Aschwin. "The Sculpture of Greater India." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 18, no. 6 (February 1960). p. 187.
Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. Exh. cat. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1970, p. 136, cat. no. 98.
Munsterberg, Hugo. Art of India and Southeast Asia. New York: Harry N. Abrams, [1970], p. 41.
Edward S. and Bebe Fleiss Orzac. "Gandharan Art of Central Asia." Arts of Asia, 13, no. 1, January/ February 1983. pp. 78–87.
Elizabeth J. Milleker, ed. The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000, p. 143, fig. 103.
Behrendt, Kurt. The Art of Gandhara in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, pp. 27–29, cat. no. 26, fig. 11.
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