Skip to main content

Head of Buddha

HADB 12Inv. MK 5Tapa Kalān
Tapa KalānFigureStuccoModelling
Figure in Stucco: Head of Buddha, Tapa Kalān, Hadda
Click to enlarge

Photo by Jules Barthoux ©GrandPalaisRmn - Guimet Museum

Gallery (1)
Tapa Kalān

Location

Tapa Kalān45

Description

This Buddha head is very damaged. The facial expression is saddened, tired, due to the drooping eyes and heavy eyelids. The ūrṇā has been torn off from the centre of the forehead. The now broken earlobes were elongated.

Observations

The stripping of the curls from the hairstyle allows us to see the notches made in the hair and the uṣnīṣa. They allowed the stucco of the strands, made separately, to adhere better in the mass. Above the ear, we see that these were treated as small round curls.

Characteristics

Technique

Modelling

Material

Stucco

Object type

Figure

Site

Tapa Kalān - 45

Conservation location

National Museum of Afghanistan

Museum inventory No.

MK 5

Traces of polychromy

No

Restoration

No restoration

Learn to recognise this figure