Pakistan, Gandhara, Buner area, early Kushan period / 1–100 CE
Bacchanalian Scene
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Bacchanalian Scene as sculpture (Pakistan, Gandhara, Buner area, early Kushan period · 1–100 CE).
Silver striated vessels that were used as reliquaries are similar to the cup from which the second figure from the left drinks.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as schist.
The museum's collection notes: The pleated garments and crowns of laurels suggest that these six figures were intended to appear like Greco-Roman people from the Mediterranean world. The male figure at the far right carries a skin, presumably full of wine, next to another bearded man holding a large footed vessel. A woman with a palm leaf on her arm—a sign of victory—gestures suggestively toward a man playing a drum. At the far left a figure drinks wine from a cup that the man at the far left may have just filled from his pitcher.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtBacchanalian SceneOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.