Alfred A. Foucher

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Alfred Foucher (1865-1952), a French scholar, identified the Buddha image as having Greek origins. He made his first trip to northeastern India in 1895. In 1922 he was asked by the governments of France and Afghanistan to organize an archeological co-operative which became the Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan. Foucher's most famous work was L'Art Gréco-Bouddhique du Gandhara (translated by L.A. Thomas and F.W. Thomas as The Beginnings of Buddhist Art), in which he described how Buddhist art prior to Pan-Hellenism was principally aniconic, representing the Buddha by depicting elements of the Buddha's life instead of depicting the Buddha himself. Foucher argued that the first sculpted images of the Buddha were heavily influenced by Greek artists. He coined the term "Greco-Buddhist art".