Mathura Art
Grade 12 · ART · Indian Art Traditions
A Grade 12 learning resource focusing on Mathura art and its distinctive artistic characteristics.
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"Mathura Art" is a lesson presentation for Grade 12 Art, filed under Indian Art Traditions, prepared by Nilmini Jayasekara.
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Slides work best as revision after the lesson rather than instead of it: read the matching pages in the reading book first, then use these to check what you remember. For Grade 12 this is usually a single topic per file.
The Mathura school (roughly contemporary with Gandhara, 1st-5th century CE, in northern India) developed its own early tradition of Buddha images independently, in a style rooted in earlier Indian yaksha (nature-spirit) sculpture: a more robust, fleshy figure, a thin clinging robe leaving the right shoulder bare, and a broad, direct facial expression - visibly different from Gandhara's Greco-Roman-influenced style.
Mathura and Gandhara are almost always taught and examined as a contrasting pair, so the single most useful thing to prepare is a direct side-by-side: indigenous and robust (Mathura) versus foreign-influenced and classical (Gandhara).
