34.Pair of medallions with portrait busts
- ca. 1st century
- Probably Maharashtra
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
This elegant pair of roundel medallions with male busts, probably worn as cloak clasps, display a naturalism rarely encountered in portrait imagery found on Sātavāhana or Kushana coins and medallions. This object type has a lineage reaching back to Hellenistic Alexandria and more immediate parallels in Parthian (Iranian) royal portraiture of the first century CE. They were likely inspired by West Asian examples that circulated in the Indian luxury market.
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