No artwork manufactured before the nineteenth century was meant to be displayed in a museum; it was meant to be out in the world, and almost always integrated with architecture.  We’re all accustomed to seeing classical Greek and Roman statuary as relics, and their oldness and brokenness makes them powerfully romantic.  These ancient and precious things, we think, have been battered by history.  But the show of Gandharan art at the Asia Society Museum is frustrating because the work is very literally fragmented.  The bits of stone statuary on display are so small and so incomplete that it’s difficult to imagine what kind of power they originally possessed.

The exhibit included pieces of stone that once served as stair risers, room dividers, pillars, false dormers, and friezes.  Each has been ripped from its original structure and pinned to the museum wall.  Some, like the figures of Buddha, are effecting.  Some, like the tiny panel above, that illustrates Maya’s dream of Buddha entering her womb in the form of an elephant, are tantalizing.  But each piece is just one flash of something.  Some pieces of sculpture, particularly those that were once part of friezes, were almost certainly intended to be appraised from below, from the side, or in dark shadow.  When seen straight on, in bright lights, as they are now, their compositions become strangely distorted and overbearing.  Each scrap is engaging, but hints at something much larger.