The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c10.9

c10.9

The Satyr head referred to above (fig. 32) has typical pointed ears, broad flat nose, moustache, beard and free-flowing locks. There is nothing mechanical or crude about the workmanship. There is an intensity of expression in the knitted brows and half-parted lips and a boldness in the treatment of the hair and beard that bespeak a thorough mastery over the material, coupled with a proper understanding of its limitations. The strong, almost portrait-like individuality that characterizes the countenance is typical of Greek art in its later phases; it is never found in early Indian art; nor is it a characteristic of the Gandhāra School.