art 175 exam 3

Tomb of the Marquis Yi c. 433 BCE Zhou dynasty, Warring States period Hubei, China --------------------------- This is a tendency that can also be seen in the following Zhou dynasty, when we begin to find an even further fleshing out of concepts relating to the soul and the afterlife. Such ideas were extensively explored in the kinds of tombs built during that time. In the preceding Shang, we found that elite tombs were large-scale and well stocked, with goods and attendants, in preparation for a life somewhere after death. In the Zhou, however, we begin to see the tomb design itself become much more organized, arranged into discreet chambers, in the manner of an actual home. So the image here is of the tomb of a nobleman named Marquis Yi, which contained a wide array of luxury goods, including a massive set of bronze bells and other musical instruments, an armory full of weapons as well as chariot parts, along with the requisite sacrificial vessels and other household goods. And here now, we can see that the tomb itself has been laid out in a way that suggests it is physically meant to continue as a comfortable domicile, for the deceased. Included in the arrangement is a chamber for the body, which is fairly standard, but there are also now rooms designed as an audience hall, where guests could be entertained, as well as a servants' quarters, and an armory. Here in the Zhou then, there seems to be a clearer conception of where the soul will go, and what it will do when it gets there, how it will continue to live. An additional significant change that appears in the tombs of the Zhou is that increasingly, it seems to have become no longer necessary for the deceased to take live servants with them, and that instead, carved surrogates could stand in and function in the same way. So we find the appearance now of human tomb figurines, an example of which can be seen in fig. 13.10. The emerging idea that servant figurines could be fashioned, and could then stand in for living servants, will be a pivotal idea in the trajectory of tomb art in the dynasties to follow.

black and white boxes / tomb

Yakshi 2nd century BCE Sandstone India ----------------------- same time these Buddhist monuments produced, however, influence from contact w/ surrounding cultures, were also indigenous traditions that continued to find expression--many seem to be extensions of earlier ideas affiliated w/ older notions of fertility. two types of nature spirits that were common: one called a yaksha (a male spirit), and the other a yakshi, representing a female spirit ----w/proportions of the body that accentuate femininity, along with jewelry and accessories that further augment it, it's imagery that we can trace back to the time of the Indus Valley. stood in villages, may have been the focus of devotional practice speculated as being the case because of their monumentality, figures generally over life-sized, stressing presence in the community. Villagers could honor to them with offerings of food/drink, flower & song. These are ritual practices of later Hinduism as well, making up an important part of devotion in that religion still today. important to keep this tradition in mind, even as we embark on our Buddhist study, because naturally, not everyone was a practitioner of Buddhism at the time, and indigenous ideas of spirituality were still a feature of local religion. seen already that there are many times when the growth and spread of a religion will feature a certain fluidity, between new practices and old ones. And the Buddhists themselves didn't discourage these kinds of fusions, and they even actively adopted traditional imagery and iconography into their burgeoning visual culture. Buddhism was, after all, a missionary doctrine, its practitioners spreading outward to propagate their new ideas. It may well have been then that they found it helpful to relate their concepts with existing ideas or images, in a way that could lend them an air of familiarity ---We will see then that, as Buddhist imagery forms, pre-Buddhist imagery still has a significant role to play.

black and white without face or arms

The Song 960-1279 China ------------------ A map with the region of Asia highlighted. In subject matter, style, and philosophy, Chinese painting pursued another important trajectory during the dynasty that followed the Tang, which is called the Song dynasty. This new focus will represent one of the most well-known developments in Chinese painting - the emergence of landscape. In particular, this will be an exploration of landscapes not just as settings for narrative scenes, but really a focus on the landscape itself, as the main interest of the art. The Song dynasty is split into two halves, both chronologically and geographically: their court began in the north, but was later hampered by invasion and driven south. And we will see that there were differences in the approaches to landscape painting during these phases, which are referred to as the Northern Song and Southern Song. The Song emperors were great patrons of the arts, and in fact the first painting academies in China developed under their rule. In fact, Song society continued even further the overall refinement of scholarly and intellectual culture that we saw earlier, out of which such literate arts were born. There was at this time an increasingly weighted feature of official life called the civil service examination, an exceptionally rigorous scholarly exam to qualify a candidate to become a government official, so that officials in positions of administration were to a greater extent based on a kind of merit or scholarly achievement, rather than simply heredity. In this way, would-be officials needed to demonstrate an expertise in subjects like Confucian ethics, history, and literature. Even political rivals at the time often tended to solve their disputes not through warfare, but through a kind of philosophical debate and discussion. This greater valorization of the intellectual will affect the direction of the arts too - so although the Song was also a very wealthy dynasty, when compared to the prominent painting of the Tang, for example, we'll find that an attention to things like material wealth and courtly elegance and extravagance gave way, to a growing expression of ideas.

blue ish tan background

Goddess 650-750 CE pigment on plaster Teotihuacan Teotihuacan, Mexico ------------ There are also examples of mural painting, from Teotihuacan - the streets and buildings of the city in fact were originally covered in stucco and brightly painted. And in what appear to be the elite residences of city, some wall murals do survive, typically depicting the city's deities and ritual activities. The image here, for example, is of one such mural, thought to depict a goddess who seems to have been one of the chief deities of Teotihuacan, as she is seen in a number of images throughout the city, and always in a very iconic and recognizable way: she is typically shown wearing a mask, along with what looks to be a large feathered headdress, above, and depicted in a gesture of outstretching hands, thought to be a portrayal of the granting of bounty. From her hands, little streams of objects issue forth, indicating the giving of goods, or of life in general. On her headdress too though, are also motifs that resemble things like stylized human hearts - this is a reminder that, in the cosmology of the region at this time, it was understood that there was a price to pay, for such abundance and ability, and that these cultures viewed sacrifice as necessary for demonstrating dedication to the gods, so that they may grant them this sustaining of life.

duller

Relief rubbing, Wu family shrine 147-168 CE stone Han dynasty Shandong, China ---- Some of the pictorial art in the religious life of the Han attests to the newer philosophies we mentioned taking root. This can be seen, for example, in the image shown here: the scene it depicts is one of people bearing gifts, paying homage to a central figure, the largest on the second level, in another instance of hierarchical scale. Tribute is also being given to another figure above, a woman whose importance is indicated in her centrality, and frontal facing posture. There is a mythological scene at the left, which illustrates the story of an archer who saved the earth by shooting down earlier extra suns, represented here as crows in a tree. The bulk of the composition however is given to this depiction of tribute and homage, which can be related to the Confucian values that have now coalesced into a state philosophy in the Han, emphasizing these kinds of correct relationships, and respect for maintaining social hierarchies. The idea was that loyal relationships within the family would extend to loyalty between subject and ruler, and so on, and that by maintaining these relationships, society would automatically fall into an orderly state. So we've seen here so far an evolution of Chinese spirituality, beginning with concepts like ancestor worship, and then the exploration of the soul's travels, but all of this will soon be challenged and in fact changed forever, by a new system of thought which starts slowly trickling into China around this time - and that of course will be the legacy of the Buddha.

yellow and white

Cong c. 2000 BCE Jade Liangzhu culture China ----------------- additional neolithic culture here called the Liangzhu, which produced a heavy output in jade working many objects like this, jade tubes called congs, typically found in grave sites. The Liangzhu made other kinds of jade burial goods as well.. polished discs of varying sizes.. congs usually decorated rectangle forms w/ circular passageway in the middle along w/ another distinctive feat of Liangzhu artwork, which is a mask form - arrangement of elements that resemble eyes, and a mouth faces sometimes also featured a headdress, or a hair design. neolithic China was a prehistoric society, but also a prewritten society.. we can only speculate motif of a stylized face resembling a mask often related with shamanic practices, an idea bolstered by the fact that these are grave goods leads to speculation the figure may have had supernatural association, someone who could assist in a protection/guidance in afterlife, along those lines, may also depict a deity. Jade, as a material, having protective qualities in later Chinese conception of afterlife, helping to guard against unfavorable elements, perhaps seeing beginnings of ideas here, in these early neolithic objects.

more crystallized yellow

Warring States Philosophy c. 475-221 BCE Zhou dynasty, Warring States period China ----------------------- Politically, life in the second half Zhou dynasty became more unstable, the region soon fractured. Different entities vied for power at the time, and so it is often referred to as the Warring States period of the Zhou. anxious age, but this climate also made it fertile ground for things like philosophical exploration. At the time, a man named Laozi was working out ideas that would later become Daoism, and Confucius, too, was expounding concepts that would coalesce into a doctrine important to East Asian social and political history for a long time to come. Confucianism was not primarily a religion, but more of a kind of social philosophy, one that worked to determine the best way to maintain an orderly world and society. Confucius tried to establish this through a code of political and familial interactions, seen as correct, ethical ways of engaging, and which were conservative, adhering to an idea of a social hierarchy. Daoism meanwhile took a kind of opposite tack, one that rejected man-made society, believing instead that greater understanding could be found in the natural realm. Following that path was called the Dao, or the Way, which conceived of life as being a kind uncarved block, embodying a naturalness untouched by human meddling. So it was a different strategy than Confucianism, and one which sought to retreat from social ills, rather than try to regulate them. But the two major philosophies emerged during this time in response to the same set of stimuli, which was the turmoil of the Warring States, and over time, they will both shape Chinese culture in immeasurable ways.

sword

The Form and Attributes of the Buddha c 2nd century CE South Asia ------------------------ early stages of Buddhist image-making, bodily form of Buddha never depicted represented, initially, through symbol- practice referred to as aniconism: meaning lack of an icon may relate to idea that he had found his way out of the earthly realm, and that, through enlightenment, he had transcended the bodily, perhaps seen as inappropriate or even inaccurate, to portray in human form. over time the form of the Buddha did emerge..., when, where, why, and how this bodily form eventually took shape, and perhaps worth wondering, even, why such images appeared at all? consider w/ the rapid development and spread of Buddhism in the area, practice became more formalized in some cases, idea of the Buddha too will start to transform to a divine being/ god. the earliest forms of Buddhism required no ritual- more popular =more elaborate, producing a need for icons may have been felt that devotion and worship were simply easier to carry out with such points of focus, as weve seen many religious traditions have used images of deities as visual aids early Buddhism was also a fairly abstract idea - just a doctrine of self-cultivation, and the illusory nature of this world. maybe-more popular, images of Buddha gave people something to grasp onto/ help them direct faith, and to help in its transmission. The development might also have been spurred forth a bit by the fact that Hinduism, a religion that developed alongside Buddhism here, had a very figural visual tradition. So perhaps, for missionary purposes, it may have helped to compete with this other religion to have images that worshippers could work from. ----around the 2nd century CE, an empire came into power here called the Kushan dynasty, borders of the kingdom ranged far into the north - including an area called Gandhara, which bordered a region called Bactria, formerly a Greek colony at the time of Alexander. Since Alexander had pushed through this area all the way to India just before the Mauryan time, some of these places continued to be inhabited by people with cultural backgrounds that were essentially Hellenistic. From here, the Kushan Empire extended also deeper into the Indian heartland, to the Ganges valley and the central city of Mathura. This is where Vedic society had taken root, and also where some of the spiritual exploration that led to the formation of Buddhism had been conducted. It was under this empire that the Buddha began to make his bodily appearance in the art, and, as we'll see, the very shape and extent of this realm winded up dictating the different ways he came to be portrayed. At this early time, the appearance of the Buddha in art had never before been established, so the artisans at this point were developing the visual language that would be used to portray him. Certain trademarks became common as identifying features of the Buddha; texts and scripture over time had described a set of bodily indicators, peculiarities which evinced a kind of superhuman or supernatural nature to the Buddha. It was these kinds of descriptors that artists were working from when they began determining how to establish the visual form of the Buddha in art. One trait that we'll uniformly see here is called the ushnisha, describing what's referred to as a wisdom bump, atop the Buddha's head. There is also a feature called the urna, described as a little curl of hair between the Buddha's eyebrows, which was often simplified as a dot between the eyes. The Buddha is also depicted with extended earlobes, which is a reference to the time when he was still a prince, and would have worn heavy jewelry in his ears, stretching them out. In his attire, the Buddha is shown wearing simple robes, an indication of his later life as an ascetic, who has now renounced earthly decadence. Behind him too is often a mandorla, which we can think of as a kind of halo. As we've seen in many spiritual cultures, including Christianity, a sacred or divine nature is suggested through a sort of extra radiance, often defined through the motif of a circular disc. Frequently too we'll see Buddhas performing specific hand gestures, called mudra, each of which we will find has a particular meaning. At the time when these figures began to emerge, however, they did not all resemble the one that we see here. In fact there are two rather distinct styles of the Buddha in sculpture, which began to appear simultaneously, and they are different it seems because of the geographical origins that they came from, and more importantly, the long cultural backgrounds of these locales.

with plate behind head leaning left