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Bacchanalian Relief

200s CE
schist
Overall: 24.5 x 61 x 14 cm (9 5/8 x 24 x 5 1/2 in.)
Gift of Maxeen and John Flower in honor of Dr. Stanislaw Czuma 2011.140
Location: 242A Ancient India
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Description

Grape vines create vignettes with scenes of drunken revelry on this architectural carving that once fit by joinery to other carved stone blocks at the base of a Buddhist monument. Bacchus himself, the Greco-Roman god of wine, may be the third figure from the left; bearded, portly, and inebriated, his garment slips as he collapses. Cupid and Aphrodite appear in the vignette on the right next to an amorous couple. On the side is a female nature divinity, grasping the branch of a tree, but unlike her counterparts from farther south in India, she is clothed in a long tunic, pants, and scarf associated with the dress of the Central Asian nomadic groups.
Bacchanalian Relief

Bacchanalian Relief

200s CE

Pakistan, Gandhara, Kushan period

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