Description This stucco head with black pigments still remaining in the eyes once belonged to a Buddha image that occupied a niche in a stupa. A large number of similar heads and more complete figures were recovered from sites in Taxila, and it is likely that this head is also from that region (see Ingholt and Lyons 1957, figs. 497 and 517-40). In several of these heads the hair is rendered in short waves of curly, undercut locks, as is the case here. Thus, despite the missing cranial bump ("ushnisha"), the head can be identified as that of a Buddha.
- Desire and Devotion: Art from India, Nepal, and Tibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham. 2001-2003.
Provenance John and Berthe Ford, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 2002, by gift.
Credit Gift of John and Berthe Ford, 2002
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