Antiquity · Rijksmuseum · 200106511
Fragment of a doorpost
anonymous, Mathura, c. 100 - c. 200
Rijksmuseum · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam · AK-MAK-1187 · Public Domain · On loan from the Royal Asian Art Society in The Netherlands (purchase heirs Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp, 1968) · Public domain
- Artist
- anonymous, Mathura
- Date
- c. 100 - c. 200
- Medium
- sandstone
- Dimensions
- height 42 cm × width 42 cm × depth 9.5 cm
- Era
- Antiquity
Why it matters
A man, dressed as hunter, is visiting a queen. Her pose conveys sadness. This may be an illustration of a scene from the Saddantajataka, a Buddhist story. In this story, the tusks of a dead elephant are presented to the queen of Benares, who, in her previous life, was the consort of the dead elephant. Such an interpretation remains problematic, however, due to the fragmentary nature of the carving.