Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Buddha granting protection
Not on view
The standing Buddha seen here is dressed in simple monastic robes. Behind both shoulders are the remains of a scalloped nimbus, or rayed disk, denoting sanctity and perhaps intended as a solar symbol evoking the radiance of the Buddha-body. The deity assumes the guise of a kinglike protector. His martial stance, feet apart and hand on hip, echoes the early standing portrait sculptures of King Kaniska I (reigned ca. 127–50 CE). This unprecedented portrait type, which also borrows from the monumentality of the yaksha (nature deity) sculptural tradition, was in turn imitated on gold coins issued by Kaniska.
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