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an image of a stone sculpture of a man holding a bottlea stone statue of a man holding a bird on a wooden basea stone block with a carved face on top of a wooden standa stone block with a carved face on a wooden standa stone sculpture of a man playing a flute on a wooden basean image of a stone sculpture on a wooden standa stone block on a wooden stand against a black backgrounda stone statue of a man sitting on a block of wooda stone sculpture of a man playing a flute in front of a black backgrounda close up of a piece of wood with a drawing on it
Maître Jean Emmanuel PRUNIER

35 - Fragment of a stupa balustrade pillar depicting a female mus…
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Estimate €8,000 - €10,000
Sale commission
Description
Fragment of a stupa balustrade pillar depicting a female musician playing the flute. Red Mathura sandstone, Kushan period, 1st–2nd century AD. The reverse is decorated with a blooming lotus. Base by Kichizo Inagaki bearing the stamp on the reverse. H. 32 cm. Provenance: Formerly in the Paul Guillaume collection. This sculpture appears in a photograph of Paul Guillaume’s salon at 20 Avenue de Messine, published in *Feuilles volantes*, supplements to *Cahiers d’art*, no. 1, 1927. It occupies a central position on the mantelpiece in front of the *Woman in a Yellow Blouse*, painted in 1907 by Pablo Picasso. Provenance: Thierry de Maigret sale, 2021. Comments: The art of the Kushan Empire, which flourished in northern India between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, marks one of the great periods in Indian sculpture. The workshops of Mathura, utilising the famous local red sandstone, developed an original style combining Indian heritage with influences from the Hellenistic world and Central Asia. This period saw, in particular, a remarkable flourishing of Buddhist art, with stupas adorned with rich sculpted ensembles. This fragment of a red sandstone balustrade pillar, most likely from the Mathura region, depicts a female musician playing the flute in high relief. Female figures—whether musicians, dancers or yakṣīs—played an important role in the decoration of the balustrades surrounding the stupas. Beyond their ornamental function, they evoked prosperity, fertility and the celebration of the Buddhist Dharma, contributing to the symbolic richness of the monument. The side grooves accommodated the horizontal rails of the balustrade (vedikā), whilst the reverse side is carved with a lotus blooming in a rosette pattern, a decorative motif characteristic of the Kushan pillars of Mathura.
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About the sale TRANSFORMING MATERIALS
Auction location
Auction time 11/08/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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