FA 34a Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Roman Sculpture, Contrapposto
Document Summary
The kushan empire (1st 4th century ce) started to see the emergence of depictions of the. Kushan made contact of rome, persia, and china via the silk road. Trading with rome brought many gold coins to the kushan empire. The kushan empire made gold coins that contained images of roman style figures and contained greek letters. The kushan used these images to reaffirm their good relations with neighboring kingdoms and trading partners. One gold coin depicts king kanishka on one side and the hindu god shiva on the other. Another coin from the 2nd century ce depicts kanishka on one side and buddha on the other. The coin identifies the buddha via the greek letters. He is holding one hand up in the no fear gesture. The gandhara buddha (2nd century ce) bears several similarities to greco roman sculpture. Many of these buddha statues are depicted with an idealized face.
