Three Rare Gandharan Terracotta Plaques of Hellenistic Origin in the Lahore Museum

Were these plaques mobile models of travelling foreign artists?

Abstract

This paper presents a study of three small terracotta plaques in the Gandhara Collection of the Lahore Museum – each with a different scene in low relief and each being a cast from a single-mould. The scenes depicted are purely classical in theme and Hellenistic in form and execution. No such scene has so far been found from any other site in Gandhara. According to the available information in the record of the Lahore Museum, these plaques were procured about 96 years ago from some unknown site in the Peshawar Valley and were deposited in the Lahore Museum. For a long time, they remained hidden from the eyes of curators until 2006 when they were identified with those briefly described, but not illustrated, by Sir John Marshall in 1922. They are being studied here in some detail for the first time. The technique of making these hand-pressed casts is the subject of this article together with making such tiny moulds and the role of their casts as travelling models of art work. Attempt is also made to show what other comparable objects can be identified with examples available in Gandhara or within its cultural peripheries as having been copied from such mobile prototypes.