How Mathura art was a formative art that gave impetus to other forms of art styles?

In many ways, Mathura school of art was a formative art which gave an impetus to other forms of art styles. Mathura represents an important formative stage in history of Indian art. It is here that one can fully observe the transition from symbolism to iconographic forms that were adopted later. Further, the forms of Brahmanical deities became crystallised at Mathura for the first time. The influence of Buddha image of the Mathura school spread far and wide both in India and Central Asia, reaching the great art centre of China. For example, the Buddha images at Tiang-lung Shan in Shansi are so similar to the seated images of Mathura that they seem to be the work of an Indian artist well acquainted with the Mathura school.