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11Story
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Head of a monk. Unknown artist, Gandhara School.
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Traces of black pigment on the irises, and of red around the nostrils and covering the lips, suggest this sculpted head may once have looked more life-like than in the worn state shown here. Its cataloguer describes its “expressive, almost individual features, full lips and shaven hair” as “astoundingly Roman” and suggests it probably formed part of a larger, narrative group aligned towards a figure of the Buddha. It is clear that attachment to the body from which it was at one point removed, and integration with the complete figures of such a group, would have added to the life-like impression.
It is not clear, however, in what respect the expressive features of the incomplete sculpture shown here fall short of individuality. There is almost infinite scope for intermediate combinations between fully generic forms at one pole to fully individualised ones at the other. In the absence of independent information it will often be hard to tell to what extent a given face was modelled - competently or otherwise – on a real person or invented by the artist.
Even when the purpose of the representation is not to record individuality, it may still be based on a real model or a vivid memory, which may or may not be communicated to a beholder. But since people do not wear fixed expressions, what they look like, and whether an artist has ‘captured’ it, is always a matter for subjective judgement. |
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