East Asian Art & Architecture Quiz 2
Four Noble Truths
(1) life is suffering; (2) suffering has cause; (3) eliminate cause and thereby eliminate suffering; (4) learn and pursue the proper path to alleviate suffering
Longman Caves Colossal Seated Buddha, Longmen Caves, Luoyang 650
- 35 feet high - Peaceful expression - Complete covering of the body - Long ears, top knot, ect. - Distinctly and ethnically chinese - A legend that suggested the facial features were an homage to the empress at the time - Massive installation - Stillness of buddha vs celestials
Datong Colossal Buddha, Cave 20, Yungang Caves, Datong (Shanxi), China. Northern Wei
- 45ft tall Buddha carved into a cliffside cave - A Buddhist monk is overseeing its construction, and the emperor is a patron - Used this project to assert their legitimacy - Shown in a position of contemplation/serenity, crosslegged - Dhyana mudra - Usnisa: The top knot that often sits upon the Buddha's head - Urna: Protrusion out of the forehead, similar to a third eye - Elongated ears - Broad shoulders - There are attributes that suggest an individual has achieved enlightenment - Ethnicity in sculpture - Stylistically leans towards south Asian features - Attempted to make Buddhas look as if they are not from China - Five major caves that have these ensembles - Holes in the carved cliffside likely held wooden poles that supported an overhang for visitors - Very linear robe with sharp lines to delineate folds in the fabric - Activated space, wooden pillars to prop up canopy - Mini wall buddhas
Ise Shrine. Please look over Jonathan M. Reynolds. "Ise Shrine and a Modernist Construction of Japanese Tradition."How does this shrine express Shino values? Explain the shrine and its symbolism
- 676 CE - We believe that there was a shinto shrine in this location since the 3rd century - Deep in the forest in a remote part of japan - A place of particular natural beauty in nature - Seen as a sacred space where when you enter, your behavior changes and you are ritually engaged - The gates are important because they physically mark the worlds that are interior and exterior - Supposed to be a sacred pilgrimage site - Torii Gates - Simple architecture - Embellished with swooping forms - Demarcate shinto shrines and buddhist sites - Ise Jingu Shrine Complex, 4th century - Rebuilt every 20 years - Construction starts 17 years before they are rebuilt - Historical example of human creativity - Investment in natural resources - Preserved architectural tradition since the 7th century - Empty site covered in white pebbles - Swept - Other site is then used as the main structure - Onset of photography changed this site - Documentation of the site and the process of the 20 year cycle - Can exist as a photographic/documentary object - Multiple layered site - Ise Inner Shrine - Wooden gate - All of the wood that encircles the sanctuary is also rebuilt Japanese architecture is invested in geometry and the use of repeatable units - 3 repeatable units (bays) provide balance and harmony - All done in wood - Takes form from the storehouses (raised, off the ground storage) - Veranda that surrounds inner building - Unpainted wood - Thatched roof - Finial embellishment projects into the air on the roofs - Made by interlocking wood pieces that fit together - Walls themselves aren't load bearing "curtain walls" because you could remove them - Held together by the joint beams - Potential reasons for rebuilding Ise Jingu every 20 years - Simply, the ruler in charge at the time said so; - Scale of the project promoted regional economic development - Materials didn't ast any longer than 20 years; - Purification of the space for the gods; - 20 years is the longest that grains can be preserved; - To pass along the traditions and techniques - Re-activating the site - Using natural resources to honor and acknowledge the natural world - Engagement with decay (wood breaking, changing color, ect.) thinking about natural cycles of renewa
Ajanta (5th century CE)
- A series of rock-cut structures - 28 halls/structures in total - Located on a curved mountainside - Surrounds a river - Very well preserved - Elaborate entranceways - There are Buddha figures at this site Cave 1 - The most famous because of the paintings found within - The painting on the right depicts when the Buddha is still a prince - The painting on the left depicts when he has become a wanderer and he is about to achieve nirvana - There is a level of verticality in the crown that the Buddha wears in this painting
Shinto - "Way of the Gods"
- All natural objects have a spirit called "kami" - That spirit is a protective spirit that if worshipped and praised will provide benefits - Deep reverence for nature - Recognize nature's power and respect it - Certain sites in the Japanese landscape were more auspicious - Points of transition - Where the ocean meets the land - Peaks of mountains - Valleys - Sites of "contact" - This is where religious sites would be built - Other important figures can have a spirit that lingers in this belief system - Very simple shrines, using organic forms to start - Eventually got more complex - Kami will protect regions - These spirits, when worshipped, could help people's quality of life - When Buddhism arrives, it is not antithetical to Shintoism, but there is a bit of tension and a sense of divide that exists to this day - Buddhist monks cannot enter Shinto shrines
Siddhartha Gautama i/e the Buddha (ca. 563-483 BCE)
- Born upper class - At 35, renounced world possessions and get away from "evils of society" - Wanders south of Nepal to Varanasi (holy city in india) - Preaches these ideas - Sits under the Bodi tree and vows to sit there in contemplation to arrive at truth - At the end of the 49 days, he reached "enlightenment" - Known as Buddah "the enlightened one" - Starts wandering throughout northern india
Caityas
- Buddhist caityas are located at important mountain passes of the western Ghats - Carved into the formerly volcanic hills - Lodgings, places of worship - Carvings and ornament are facsimiles of wooden structures of the time - Often contained a long sort of hallway with pillars, and at the end there would be a stupa carved from stone
Hinayana, the lesser vehicle
- Followers believe in the original teachings of Buddha - Oldest one - Focused on personal liberation - Did not believe in idol worship - Individual salvation
Excavation of Pagodas
- Has tons of different spaces Where monks would live - People would visit, sites of pilgrimage - A golden image of the Buddha enclosed within - Not a symbolic reference like stupas - Verticality Axis Mundi - Would likely be ambulated around - Gates close and sanctify the space - This change in form coils be a combination of vertical architecture and stupas, elongating the stupa into the pagoda shape
Hojo garden at Daisen-in, Daitoku-ji, Kyoto. Established c. 1513. Be sure to understand some key ideas about Zen and how they impact architecture and other forms of creative Japanese expression. What is the purpose of a Zen garden and why does it look the way it looks. How are we to behave around it?
- Karesansui or "dry landscape" - NOT FOR US in a spatial sense; we LOOK at them, we DO NOT go into them - Not something to experience - Gardens are small - Gardens nestled between buildings; not part of the building - Dry: rocks, sand, and dry objects - Supposed to be static; not about what's growing - Can be divided - Sit and look at a zen garden with wandering eyes - Juxtaposition between object and nonobject - The sand holds and encompasses - Can be looked at in different ways - What is the aesthetic of this? - Intentionally plunked stones - Carefully raked sand - Miniaturize the presence of nature as symbolic (rocks signify mountains) - Understated; so much empty space - The negative spaces where you think and reflect on - Juxtaposition of form - Meditative view of contemplation - What are the views you see? - Diversity of viewpoint - How something old is new and can be changed and reconfigured based on how you encounter it - Philosophical spaces - Experiencing the seasons - How does sitting in the cold change how you meditate in it vs warm environment - Connection between zen buddhist practice and meditative space - East asian painting - Functions as a visual journey - Supposed to let your eyes wander through a painting to different parts - Importance of a scroll - Karesansui - Rocks signify large scale formations
Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna, 518
- Multiplicity of Buddhas ~Buddha multiverse~ - Buddhas existing simultaneously across different time periods - Elongated figures - Bringing objects to Buddhist sites
Longmen Caves- Binyang Chapel / Shakyamuni Buddha
- One of the most impressive at the sight in terms of massive Buddha structures - Made by the emperor, dedicated to his father in tandem with another cave at the sight that is dedicated to his mother - Filial piety through the lens of Buddhist imagery - The two attendants are his two favorite disciples, and they are accompanied by other disciples - Was painted Ceiling - The ceiling was painted, limestone with pigment - Apsara: Winged celestial beings, heavenly creatures - Lotus leaves at the center - Relief panels - Taken off the walls
Triad of Buddha and Two Bodhisattvas- Longmen Caves
- Robe fabric is much more flowing and realistic, more movement - Starting to see Buddhism through a Chinese lens
Mahayana
- Sees Theravada as Hinayana ("Lesser Vehicle") and itself as inheritor of complete tradition - Regards Shakyamuni as one of infinite number of Buddhas Focuses on mysticism and compassionate action - Goal: bodhisattva (being that voluntarily defers liberation from samsara in order to help other beings attain liberation) - More open to laity, women - Dominant in China
Shinto and Early Buddhist Art in Japan
- Shintoism, state religion of Japan - Still actively practiced by the Japanese people - Gets merged with Buddhism - Sites are centralized around urban centers - The Builders - Not really a sense of formal, academic training, but rather people who worked collaboratively to create these structures and pass down these skills - Hundreds of years of shared knowledge and tradition
Stupa at Sanchi 250 BCE Think through the form and purpose of stupas in South Asia and how the connect to Buddhist practice. Connect stupas to other forms of South Asian Buddhist architecture.
- Stupa is Sanskrit for "pile" - Required monks to walk around it and ascend it at a particular point - You are not permitted access to the stop - 2 floors; first floor is the "bottom level", second floor is the "upper level" - Gate- primary where decoration appears - Combination of figural and symbolic imagery - No buddha figure at all; the buddha is being conjured in the form of the stupa - Early stupas are supposed to be the body of the historical figure of buddha - Relics- pieces of body of historical buddha - Solid mass- an architectural form but also a bodily mass - Everything we know about this is told by buddhist monks - Writing found here; sanskrit - Non-figural - Stupa as solid but also represents water- sits on square base represents the earth - Monks are represented in togas that came from the Greeks - Another representation of the horizontal intersection with the vertical Chattra- the topmost form. + An "umbrella" + The dome of the umbrella is held aloft by a vertical handle (just like the mountain upholds the sky) + Identified with the "axis mundi" or the ventral axis upholding the world + "The crown" + Mediating people's sense of their place on earth + How do people situate themselves in the world and make sense of their spiritual beliefs? + Help people visualize what they believe
The Bamiyan Buddhas
- The Kushans - The "knuckle" connecting India to the world - Giant buddhas carved out of the hills themselves - Located in contemporary Afghanistan ~120ft tall in height - Were they influenced by any other cultures? Egypt? - Bodily structure is a bit stiff and blocky - Clothing is rather stylized - The Taliban destroyed much of this sculpture because they found it offensive, it took a month
Buddhist Architecture
- The architecture was integrated with existing Chinese architecture - Very dependent on wood - Sculptural projects that replicate buildings, to try and get a glimpse of what buildings were like - Very vertically oriented - Modularity, bracketing system - Impressive scaffolding system that puts all the stress of the building on the joints rather than the walls - Multi-story structures - Slanted roofs - Beliefs in energy and energy flow - Radiating energy outward instead of down and off
Emperor Procession- Longmen Caves
- This panel is believed to be very accurate in depicting Chinese royal culture at the time - Emperor is a little bit larger with a slightly more ornamented robe - He is attended by individuals with "fans" - Giving votive offerings to Buddha - Describes the rituals that take place at the Longmen caves
Lotus Imagery
- Very common in South Asia - Lotus thrones - Lion Pillar - Lion Capital - Very vertically oriented, axis mundi?
Sakyamuni Buddha, 338
- Wandering is essential to Buddhism and this is how it will move along trade routes and into East Asia - Top knot: Enlightenment - Mudra position - Elongated earlobes - Very early object, Buddhism has not existed for very long - Buddhism does not conflict with Daoism or Confucianism but lives in harmony with the ways people have already been living and thinking - Buddhists likely knew several different languages and acquired languages as they traveled - Sakyamuni Buddha, 338 first objects which come in are small portable objects traveling with monks - Features: top knot (enlightenment), ears, pose
Lion Pillars and Lion Capital
Built by Ashoka A wheel motif is present, representing cycles, etc. Early Buddhist imagery did not contain the Buddha
Tori Busshi ("Buddhist sculptor Tori"), (flourished 7th century, Japan), Shaka (Sakyamuni) triad Think about this sculpture in relation to how Buddhist figural imagery has evolved? Consider its materiality
Is the first surviving Japanese masterpiece, this is a bronze triad of the historical Buddha, Shaka. This saintly figure had a major role in making Buddhism accepted in Japan. The Buddha, attended by two other figures, the bodhisattvas, sits in lotus position, the drapes of his long robe flowing in a flat, purely fashion over the pedestal. With his hands, he signifies peace and giving while the smile suggests gentle welcome.The style of Japanese art was established when the Buddhism was introduced. The teaching of the arts through Buddhist temples was followed by Korean monks and artisans, the ones who created Buddhist sculptures representing saints and important figures. The patronage of Buddhism became one of the most important facets of court life.Bronze and copper were the most popular sculpting materials for the main image of a temple or for an important statue, for example, the Buddha of medicine for the health of an emperor. Most statues were made of wood, which was the preferred material for Japanese sculptors.
Attributes of the Buddha
Long earlobes, a sign of auspiciousness Webbed fingers
Buddhism
Most significant connector to asian art and architecture. - Rejects hierarchical society - Rejected the trappings of hinduism and lord brahma - Rejects sacrifice - Theravada School of Buddhsm emphasizes personal liberation - A form of asceticism (a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various worldly pleasures) - One must be a mendicant (mendicant from latin: mendicans, "begging" monk. They follow the Four Noble Truths - Quest for personal liberation and inner self - Unlike previous religions it was not just for elites, but for anyone who would renounce wealth power - It did not organize society by means of power or economy but by the concept of inner Enlightenment
Muchaku by Unkei (circa 1150-1223) Think about this sculpture in relation to how Buddhist figural imagery has evolved? Consider its materiality
Zen Buddhism Freestanding; not in a lotus or meditative state Body sculpted with humbleness; simplified Made of wood, nothing bronze Natural materials Inflected with naturalism Looks very human Careful Free Flowing fabric and movement in the robe Was painted; paint wore off over time Sensitized treatment of wood Supposed to be a disciple of the historical buddha when he reaches enlightenment Supposed to be a south asian indian person Little to no south asian influence Modeled on zen buddhist monk from life to embody the historical figure Historical connections arrived on replicating the buddha figure with a specific japanese lens in the hear and now everyday Holding a reliquary object to be brought in worship Doesn't have the mudras and identifiers Someone in motion; a break in a sense Represents an alternative way of engaging with buddha figures Zen language that defines or conjures how its working Using a monk that he knew gives attention to the old Less explicit An exercise in studying the values embodied in the sculptures More of a person on the path to enlightenment; what does the path look like? Getting rid of trappings and possessions Humbling of the body Using natural, humble material Acknowledging decay
Sokkuram Grotto, Mount. Toham, 751-774. Think about this monument in relation to South Asia and China. How was it constructed? What is the logic of its figural program?
eokguram Grotto, Mount Toham 742-774 - In a cliffside - 565 m above sea level - Location chosen between land and sea looking out from the sea - Buddhist place of worship and functions as a "protective" space - Architectural protection - Carved into the cliff - Originally built as hermitage site - Originally part of a bigger structure - Looks unassuming, cozy, small -Suggestion of architecture that moves into the natural organic Korea doesn't have the same natural rock formations as india; not as much natural cave architecture can exist - When this was designed, they created a cave - In order to make it replicate cave temples from india, they took the granite that is common in korea and quarried the granite into large rocks where the cave was built up - All sculptural stuff done on the inside, then was covered up - Similar to tomb structures - The need to replicate what is common in south asia - Carving out the cliffside in a unique way - Much like the keyhole shape we've seen in east asia - Narrow passage - Opens to rotunda - Small opening to the miraculous - The inside has the roundness of a stupa - Circle form - At the center is a big large statue of the buddha - Like the Montestaries cut in the cliffside (mini stupa) - How is this like other buddhist architecture? - Using circularity - Natural formation isn't localized to korea; manipulating space and geography Buddha - Simple clothing decoration - One shoulder garb - Little definition; the body is blocky - Raised up "Third eye" - Comparison to longman caves in china - More intimate than longman - The experience of entering a closed off space - Sculpted in the round (can walk around the whole thing) - Longman has a frontal view - Head a little large compared to longman - Longman cave version has slightly more opened eyes vs korean one the eyes feel closed - Different experiences of viewing (intimate experience - Both in lotus position - Both have meditative gestures - Left arm sits on thigh in korean example (dhyana mudra "spiritual perfection"), right hand on right knee (historical reference to buddha under the bodhi tree) two mudras is consistent with buddha sculpture - 3 ½ m high - Would have been painted (traces of red paint) - Would have produced
Sinicization/sinification
the act or process of making something more Chinese in character, or bringing something under Chinese influence
