Early Buddhist Art
Artist: unknown
Title: Great Stupa at Sanchi (Stupa I), north gateway (torana),
east pillar, west face
Material: Stone
Site: Sanchi, India
Current Location: Sanchi, India
Period/Date: Sunga period (ca. 25 C.E.)
Iconography/Iconology: This panel shows devotees doing puja in
front of a cave or structural shrine in a mountain setting.
Stylistic Comments: The arrangement of figures in two horizontal
registers below the cave is characteristic of Satavahana sculpture. There
is no apparent recession, although the cave is undoubtedly in the background.
Instead, recession is shown by elevation in the picture plane. The rocks
of the mountain setting are sharp, geometric abstractions, rather than pictorial
representations. This form continues in Indic art until well into the 12th
century.
