Art History

Discussion about art history

Ai Wei Wei Documentary to watch for module 3 Links to an external site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIdlt3j9nKA&feature=youtu.be

Arth 27 ONLINE

Art 27 ONLINE: Art History Survey III: Non-Western Perspective

Module 2 – Chapters 7 & 8 – please note chapter 8 requires you to view a documentary allow time to see the entire film.

The link is under modules as well as posted here under Chapter 8.

Chapter 7 – Southeast Asia

Instructions: All modules are open book assignments. However, you must use your own words to explain what you have learned. There may also be supplemental materials (videos, etc.) that you are asked to view for certain questions. Complete the assignment and submit it no later than the stated due date. Remember to save your module with questions and point values intact, then submit with your name initials on the word doc.

Discussion Questions: Using complete sentences and appropriate grammar / punctuation, answer each essay question with a minimum of 8 to 10 thoughtful and complete sentences.

Remember, write your answers clearly and in an organized fashion. The questions maybe broken up with bullet points, that is to help you identify each portion of the prompt and not miss key points in your answer.

Essay Question 1. (8 points)

· What was the time period of the Ban Chiang Culture, Thailand ?

· Define Neolithic.

· When were the Neolithic ceramics of Ban Chiang discovered?

· Who discovered them and how?

· When was Ban Chian settled and by whom?

· What other types of works besides ceramics were being created by artisans ?

· Give specific examples of works of ceramics as well as other types of works from your textbook.

Essay Question 2. (5 points)

· Define Indianization

· Define Sinification

· What were the effects of “Indianization” and “Sinification”?

on Southeast Asian art?

· Give specific examples of each from your text.

Essay Question 3. (7 points)

· In Vietnam, when did the Dong Son culture begin?

· Where was the first excavation of a Dong Son burial site?

· When did this occur?

· What was the name of the site and where was it located in relation to Hanoi?

· What time of objects did the Dong Son make? Be specific. What mediums did they create most of their work with?

· Give specific examples from your text.

· Describe Co Loa

Essay Question 4 (7 points)

· Look at the image by Sopheap Pich, Cambodia, Buddha 2, 2009

· Where was the artist from?

· Where did he live when his family left Cambodia?

· Where did Sopheap Pich study art?

· In Cambodia, Pich began working with rattan and bamboo,

· why did he use that choice of media?

· Describe in detail using your own observations Buddha 2.

· What was the inspiration for this work?

· How was blood referenced in this work?

· Why was blood referenced in this work?

Essay Question 5 (8 points)

· Describe Angkor Wat, where is it located?

· Who built it?

· What was the symbolism related to the cosmos?

· How was that symbolism shown in Angkor Wat?

· Who worked on this structure? How many workmen were there?

· How long did this take to build? What is the size of Angkor Wat?

· Who were allowed to climb to the top level and proceed to enter the temple?

· Who was the devotional image that was placed inside the temple?

Module 2 – Chapter 8

China

– please note chapter 8 requires you to view a documentary allow time to see the entire film.

The link is under modules as well as posted here under Chapter 8.

Essay Question 6 ( 25 points)

This will require you to view the documentary entitled

Ai Weiwei Never Sorry 2012 – the link is also available under your module. You must view the entire documentary (it is very interesting) to write your assignment.

https://youtu.be/WIdlt3j9nKA

Answer each question in essay style. Be sure to use organized and complete sentences.

· The film shows us several of Ai Wei Wei’s art projects. What is the content of his work? What is the context of his work? What do you think he is challenging in his country, China?

· We have viewed in class different reasons artist make art, what do you think the reason Ai Wei Wei makes art. What is his purpose or intent?

· What was the significant event that happened in China’s Tiananmen Square that is referred to in the film?

· When did that happen? What took place?

· What work/installation/project/performance did you find the most meaningful to you?

· Why? Describe the work and explain what your response was to it.

· What did the artist do that created that response?

· Do you think his intent for the viewer was a success?

· What part does technology play in Ai Weiwei’s work?

· What or how does he use technology? Do you think his work would be as successful without the use of that technology?

· In your chapter, find an example of at least two works from the past that relate to the work Ai Wei Wei created.

· Explain how you think his work relates to the art of the past of China.

Essay Question 7 ( 10 points)

For this module, you created an image of a Terra Cotta Warrior/Animal. You viewed the National Geographic documentary on the subject. Now, answer these questions.

· Who were the images of?

· What was the reason these images were built?

· Who requested (demanded) that they be built?

· What purpose did the figures serve?

· How many of these images were made?

· Would this have been an easy place to work? Why or why not?

· What was the process (details) in how these were constructed?

· What were the figures created with? (materials/medium)?

· Is the appearance of these figures the same as when they were buried?

· What is different or similar?

· What was problematic in creating and having them completed in one piece?

· Were all the images made in a mold?

· Were all the images identical? How is that proven?

Art of the Non-Western World

Chapter 7: Southeast Asia

Chapter Learning Objectives

Recognize key artworks and regional styles in the art and architecture of Southeast Asia

Understand how the introduction of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam influenced the development of art and architecture in the various Southeast Asian nations.

Explain the impact of Colonial rule on the art and culture of pre-and-post independence Southeast Asian nations in terms of specific works, artists, and contemporary directions.

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Neolithic Southeast Asia (4,000 BCE -300 CE)

The earliest evidence of human presence in Southeast Asia dates to 60,000 BCE. It is a partial, human skull, discovered in 2009, by archaeologists working at the Tam Pa Ling or “Cave of the Monkeys” site in northern Laos.

Elsewhere across the region stone tools, dating back even farther in history, have been found. While human occupation in Southeast Asia is quite ancient, the first settled villages, ceramics and metal objects do not appear before the introduction of rice agriculture in the third millennium BCE.

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Thailand, Ban Chiang, Footed Vessel, c. 1000-300 BCE, 9.5 x 6.87 in.

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7.1 Thailand, Ban Chiang, Earthenware with buff slip and incised and painted decoration, c. 1000-300 BCE, 9.5 x 6.87 in (24.1 x 11.4 cm). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Over a period of more than 3000 year the Ban Chiang artists made beautifully decorated vessels in a range of forms. This work was created separately as a bowl and pedestal and then joined. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, 1987

The Neolithic ceramics of Ban Chiang were accidentally discovered in 1966, when Stephen Young, an American university student, when he tripped over a tree root and landed on a vessel partially buried in the roadbed.

Excavations revealed that Ancient Ban Chiang was first settled during the fourth millennium BCE by rice farmers and was continuously occupied for almost four thousand years.

In addition to ceramics dating back to 3600 BCE, Ban Chiang artisans were also casting bronze and working iron by 1500 BCE, making Ban Chiang one of the earliest Bronze Age societies outside of the Middle East.

The earliest Ban Chiang pottery consisted of globular, pedestal-footed earthenware vessels crafted from local clays, using the coiling technique.Vessel walls were thinned and smoothed using a paddle and anvil technique. Decoration included cord-marking, rocker-stamping, applique, combing and incised designs with some vessels showing evidence of reduction firing.

During the last millennium BCE, red ochre-slip painting on buff clay vessels was introduced. Motifs tend to be geometric or organic shapes, consisting of single and double spirals, circles, triangles, and concentric ovoid designs. Ban Chiang artists created more complex vessel forms as separate units, in this case the bowl and pedestal stem, which were joined together before firing. In some cases, the decoration of each separate part, although compatible, is distinct.

Vietnam, Sa Huynh, Bicephalic ear ornament, c. 500 BCE-300 CE, stone, 1.75 x 0.75 x 2 in.

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7.2 Vietnam, Sa Huynh, Bicephalic ear ornament, c. 500 BCE-300 CE, stone, 1.75 x 0,75 x 2 in (4.4 x 1.9 x 5.1 cm). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Two animal heads, possibly deer, decorate this carved stone ornament. Despite the small scale there is a remarkable degree of feature detail. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Sa,uel Eilenberg Collection, Bequest of Samuel Eilenberg, 1990

During the first millennium BCE, the Sa Huynh Culture appeared along the central Vietnamese coast. In 1909 French archeologists discovered some two hundred urn burials grouped into clusters and interred beneath the sand dunes near Sa Huynh in Quang Ngai province.

In addition to the bones, the painted jars contained stone beads, ear ornaments, and items of bronze, iron, and glass. Ritually broken ceramic offering jars were also discovered in the pits.

The Sa Huynh carved double-headed stone zoomorphic ear ornaments that were suspended from the ear by a C-shaped hook.

The animals appear to be deer-like with long ears and slightly bulging eyes.

The mouth of one head maybe shown open with the tongue extended while the other is closed.

By the first century CE, the Sa Huynh began making their bicephalous (double-headed) ornaments out of glass. These signature ear ornaments have been found as far away as Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Vietnam, Song Da, Dong Son Bronze Drum, c. 500 BCE

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7.3 Vietnam, Song Da, Dong Son Bronze Drum, c. 500 BCE. Collection of the Musée Guimet. The earliest bronze drums were lost wax cast and had mushroom-shaped resonances which show three distinct parts. The center of the tympanum is typically decorated with a slightly raised eight-pointed star motif. By Own work, Public Domain

Contemporaneous with the Sa Huynh was the Dong Son culture which arose in the first millennium BCE in the Song Ma and Lam Giang River basins of northern Vietnam.

The first excavation of a Dong Son burial site occurred in the 1920s near the village which lent its name to the culture. Only one Dong Son habitation site has been excavated and that was at Co Loa about 10 miles north of Hanoi.

Co Loa appears to have been a fortified city that was protected by three rammed-earth walls and two outer moats. Like the Sa Huynh, the Dong Son were talented metalworkers who engaged in long-distance sea trading.

The Dong Son made a variety of bronze objects, including daggers, bells, tools, and ornaments but they are best known for their bronze drums, identifiable by their characteristic “star” in the center of the tympanum.

Hundreds of such drums have been found, primarily in burials, across Vietnam, southern China, in Cambodia, the Indonesian archipelago, the Philippines and on the Malaysian peninsula.

The drums were lost-wax cast in a single piece and come in a variety of sizes with the largest weighing as much as 220 pounds and standing more than three feet high. The drums were played while suspended over a pit in the ground, which served as a resonating chamber.

The earliest drums have a mushroom-shaped profile divided into three well-defined sections, later drums become progressively more cylindrical. Typically, the drums feature a central eight-pointed star design on the tympanum, which is surrounded by concentric bands in which humans, animals, or birds move in procession.

Decoration often continues down the shoulders and bell of the drum. Four cord-marked loop handles extend from the bell of the drum on each side.

Indianization and Sinification in Medieval Southeast Asia (c. 500-1500)

Indian influence in Southeast Asia began during the reign of the Emperor Ashoka in the last centuries BCE, with the arrival of the first Buddhist missionaries.

In the first century CE, Hinduism was brought to Southeast Asia by seafaring Hindu traders, who established temples in their trading posts on the mainland and in the Indonesian archipelago.

The period of Indian interaction continued through the end of the Gupta dynasty in the 5th century CE.

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Myanmar, Sri Ksetra (pyay), Bawbawgyi Pagoda, 5th century CE, 253 ft. high.

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7.4 Myanmar, Sri Ksetra (pyay), Bawbawgyi Pagoda. Burma was one of the first areas in Southeast Asia to receive Buddhism. This early stupa is an example of the "heap-of-paddy" type of stupa set on a high drum. It is twice as high as the Great Stupa at Sanchi. Photo By Jakub Hałun distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

The Buddhist missionaries sent east by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka traveled along the overland route from India to China, known as the Silk Route.

This trade route ran through the Pyu city states in northcentral Myanmar, where some of the earliest surviving examples of Indianized architecture can be found.

In the ancient Sri Ksetra (modern Pyay) stands the Bawbawgyi Pagoda. Bawbawgyi is the best-preserved example of the ancient Pyu style stupa and served as the prototype for later Burman pagodas.

In contrast to the Indian hemispherical-dome-on-a-drum stupas, Bawbawgyi sits on a five-tiered circular terrace from which it rises as a plain, plastered, solid brick cylinder with a conical top and a hollow mast in the center.

It rises to an impressive height of 153 feet, more than twice the height of the Great Stupa at Sanchi at 70 feet.

Myanmar, Yangon, Shwedagon Pagoda, c. 500-900 CE, brick, gold plate, gold leaf, and jewels.

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7.5 Myanmar, Yangon, Shwedagon Pagoda, c. 500-900 CE, brick, gold plate, gold leaf, and jewels. At the heart of this structure is the original 6th century solid brick stupa that stood 27 feet (8 m) high; it has been enlarged several times over the centuries to reach its current height of 326 ft (99 m). Photo By Bjørn Christian Tørrissen distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

In the old Mon city of Yangon (ancient Dagon) is one of Myanmar’s most revered Buddhist shrines, the Shwedagon Pagoda.

The original stupa is thought to have been built sometime between the 6th and 10th centuries, although it is claimed in The Great Glass Palace Chronicle, complied in the 1830s, that the stupa is 2500 years old.

Its name Shwedagon or “Reliquary of the Four” is derived from the belief that its vault contains relics from three Buddhas of the past: Kahusandha, Kassapa, and Konagamana along with three hairs from the head of the Historic Buddha, Gautama.

In its earliest form, Shwedagon was a simple, solid brick stupa, most likely bell or cylindrical in shape, standing about 27 feet tall. Beginning in the 14th century various Mon kings showed their Buddhist devotion through the restoration and enlargement of Shwedagon.

The first of these was King Banya U (r. 1353- 1385) who raised the pagoda to a height of 60 feet. In the mid-15th century, Queen Shinsawbu (r. 1453-1472) again enlarged Shwedagon, more than doubling its height and creating the large, paved terrace on top of the hill; she also donated her weight in gold to the gilding of the stupa.

King Hsinbyushin (r. 1763-1776) brought the brick structure to its current configuration and height of 326 feet. Shwedagon sits atop a more than 20 foot high, square platform, which is ringed by sixty-four small, gilded pagodas, each housing a Buddha image; larger ones mark the cardinal points with medium-sized pagodas at the corners of the plinth.

Rising from the platform are a series of octagonal terraces leading to a bell capped by an inverted alms bowl; these two elements form the dome of the stupa. Continuing upward from the bowl is a ringed steeple of the Singhalese type, which is topped by lotus petals, banana bud, crown, weathervane, and orb elements.

The weathervane and orb are encrusted with more than two thousand carats of diamonds along with more than a thousand rubies and sapphires. At the pinnacle of the spire is a single 76 carat diamond. The placement of a crystal or jewel at the top of the spire is intended to symbolize the “light of truth.”

Myanmar, Bagan, Nathlaung Kyaung Temple, c. 931 CE.

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7.6 Myanmar, Bagan, Nathlaung Kyaung Temple, c. 931 CE. This is one of the few Hindu temples that has survived in Burma. It is a Gu or “cave temple” type. Earthquakes destroyed its mandapa and have damaged its shikhara. Photo By Lionslayer distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Very few early Hindu temples have survived in Myanmar; one exception is the Nathlaung Kyaung Temple. The Nathlaung Kyaung it is attributed to King Taunghthugyi (r. 931-964), an early Hindu king of Bagan (also Pagan).

The temple has suffered considerable damage over the centuries from earthquakes and neglect, resulting in the loss of its mandapa and the crumbling of its shikhara.

Nathlaung Kyaung is an early, single-face Gu or “cave temple.” Gu temples were intended as artificial caves for meditation, and rituals of devotion. The temple is entered through a small vestibule leading to a remarkably small rectangular sanctuary.

Although from the exterior the temple looks quite large, much of the interior space is taken up by heavy masonry walls and a central masonry core, surrounding the sanctuary, which was necessary to support the dome and shikhara.

Myanmar, Bagan, Nathlaung Kyaung Temple, Harihara, c. 931 CE

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7.7 Myanmar, Bagan, Nathlaung Kyaung Temple, Harihara, c. 931 CE, brick, stucco and pigment. Harihara is a composite or dual deity, who is half Vishnu and half Shiva and carries the attributes of each. Photo By Hybernator distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

A large devotional image of Vishnu once graced the shrine and other freestanding images were set into niches in both the ambulatory and on the exterior.

These sculptures were removed by a German engineer in the 1890s and taken to Berlin. The only original decorations remaining in the temple are the stucco relief images of Vishnu in his various manifestations.

One of these depicts Harihara, a Hindu dual god who is, at the same time, both Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara). The relief image is a composite of the two deities, with the left half being Vishnu and the right, Shiva.

The Vishnu half holds in his three hands a conch shell (front), mace (center), and discus. The Shiva holds sword, bow, and trident in the same order. Remaining traces of blue paint indicate that the temple images were once brightly colored.

The Khmer Empire (802 – 1431 CE)

The Khmer Empire was established in 802 CE when Jayavarman II having conquered all of Cambodia, Laotian and Thai states as well as parts of Vietnam and the Malay Peninsula, claimed for himself the title of chakravartain.

He went on to proclaim himself a devaraja or “god king.” The ruler’s divine status endured for his lifetime and when he died his essence returned to the god. After the death, the ruler’s state temple served as his mortuary temple, receiving the ashes of the king.

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Cambodia, Angkor Wat, c. 1113-1145 CE

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7.10 Cambodia, Angkor Wat, c. 1113-1145. Suryavarman II began building this great mountain temple shortly after he took the throne. The cosmic symbolism was carried out across the site from the surrounding moat “ocean” to the mathematical proportions of the structure and its parts. Photo By Jakub Hałun distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Suryavarman II began work on his state temple, Angkor Wat, shortly after he ascended the Khmer throne; it is thought to have taken 50,000 workmen some thirty years to construct.

The Indian archetypes for Suryavarman’s great temple can be found in the Nagara style monumental temples built by the Chandela dynasts at Khajuraho.

Angkor Wat was conceived as a temple-mountain, rising on three stepped platforms to replicate the cosmic mountain of Hindu mythology, Mount Meru, but the complex as a whole was intended as a model of the universe. The laterite wall enclosing the 500-acre compound represented the mountains at the edges of the earth beyond which the cosmic oceans were evoked by the 623-foot expanse of the moat.

Only the Khmer king and Hindu priests were allowed to ascent to the top level and enter the temple. Following its Khajuraho prototypes, the sandstone temple sits atop a raised platform or plinth, called a jagati.

It is constructed of massive stone laterite blocks, face with sandstone; the latter were laid-up without mortar and often were not keyed together, resulting in vertical joints being stacked on top of each other instead of staggered but some blocks were joined using metal cramps.

The temple takes the form of a Greek cross with four columned halls contained within a square gallery. Symbolizing the five peaks of Mount Meru, are graduated-tier towers, known as “lotus bud towers,” arranged to form a quincunx; the tallest of these was positioned over the sanctuary which once held a bronze devotional image of the Hindu god, Vishnu to whom it was dedicated.

The temple itself rises to a height of 137 feet, but combined with the three terraces, the overall height is an impressive 213 feet.

Cambodia, Angkor Wat, Gallery Relief showing Suryavarman II Holding Court, c. 1113-1145 CE

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7.11 Cambodia, Angkor Wat, Gallery Relief showing Suryavarman II Holding Court, c. 1113-1145, stone relief, pigment and gold leaf. In this scene Suryavarman has stopped while traveling and sits in an elephant chair in a position of royal ease. Image by User:Markalexander100 distributed under a {{GFDL}} license.

The concentric terrace galleries contain thousands of square feet of bas-relief sculpture, including some images that were only rough-chiseled into the surface in the manner of a sketch before work ceased at the temple.

The large-scale reliefs, generally about seven feet tall, are cut directly into the stone blocks from which the wall was constructed. They depict stories from the Hindu creation myths, episodes from the Mahabharata and Ramayana epics, parades of voluptuous apsaras or “celestial nymphs,” and scenes of Suryavarman II at court and in battle.

The court scenes are the first such depictions in Khmer art. In one relief Suryavarman, sits on an ornately carved howdah or elephant carriage, suggesting that the ruler is traveling.

The artist has attempted to show the left and right sides of the chair-like box but utilizes a reverse perspective, expanding them outward until the side rails appear to be in line with the front of the chair.

Behind the hierarchically scaled king is a lotus pond suggested by the tall stalks of the lotus pads, and the open and closed blossoms. Gathered closely around the king are the servants who fan the king; at first glance the servants seem to be identical but upon closer examination there are subtle differences in the details of their ornaments.

One figure seated under a tree appears to be a court official, most likely a scribe, who reads to the king. The panel and others at Angkor Wat have traces of red and black pigment and occasional gold leaf, suggesting that the scenes were originally painted and elements heightened with gilding.

Cambodia, Angkor Thom, Bayon, c.1190 CE.

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7.12 Cambodia, Angkor Thom, Bayon, c.1190 CE. Built by Jayavarman VII the Bayon is a Mahayana Buddhist temple dedicated to the Bodhisattva Lokeshvara, whose face decorate the sides of the temple’s 50 towers. Photo By Krzysztof Golik distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

After the death of Suryavarman II, the Khmer dynasty was weakened to the point the throne was usurped by a court official who ruled for a decade. In 1177, the Cham attacked the capital and killed the usurper. During the four years they were in control of the capital, they sacked and destroyed much of it.

The Cham takeover prompted Jayavarman VII (r. 1181-1220 CE) to return from the Champa kingdom where he had been living in exile and take the throne.

Jayavarman VII is credited not only with restoring the empire but also with building the new capital of Angkor Thom about a kilometer north of the old city. The new “Great City” was designed to be unassailable. It was surrounded by a laterite wall 26 feet high and a moat 328 feet across.

Inside the city walls state temples, administrative buildings, the royal palace, and residences for monks, court officials, and the military lined streets laid out on a grid plan.

While the temples constructed by Jayavarman VII were stone, most of the other structures in the city, including the palace, were built of wood and have not survived.

Jayavarman VII differed from earlier Khmer kings in that he was a follower of Mahayana Buddhism, so his temple-mountain, the Bayon, is a Buddhist shrine. Despite being a Buddhist temple, the Bayon incorporates a number of Hindu design and cosmological elements.

Like Angkor Wat, its prototype, the Bayon rises on three stepped platforms; the first two having galleries with a program of bas relief decoration. The Bayon differs its earlier prototypes in that it has no outer wall or moat, those surrounding the city sufficing to complete the cosmological model.

The third level contains the ruins of a circular temple with a central chamber and porched entrances marking the cardinal direction. The Bayon’s fifty towers are a cross between Angkor Wat’s lotus towers and the Nagaran shikhara.

Each tower is carved with four bodhisattva faces, which look to the four directions and topped by an amalaka. Because Jayavarman VII considered himself to be the incarnation of the bodhisattva Lokeshvara, it is thought that the faces are portraits of the king.

Compared to Angkor Wat, the Bayon appears more spatially constricted and lower; its towers only rise to a height of 75 feet (23 m).

Cambodia, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Tonle Sap Naval Battle Scene, c. 1190 CE

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7.13 Cambodia, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Tonle Sap Naval Battle Scene, c. 1190 CE. In this scene of a navel battle fighters fall into a lake filled with fish and hunting crocodiles. Photo By Shyamal distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

Only the galleries of the Bayon’s first two platform levels are decorated with bas-relief sculpture cut directly into the stone blocks of the wall.

In many cases the relief is more deeply cut than at Angkor Wat but the quality of the carving seems to vary according to the skill of the artist. Differences in style and degree of completion, suggests that the scenes were roughed in by one team of artisans and then finished by another.

The walls are divided into three registers, sometimes separated by a ground band. The friezes show scenes of military processions in which Jayavarman VII is shown riding on a war elephant, the 1177 naval battle on Tonle Sap, a large lake to the south of Angkor, and scenes from everyday life, showing people fishing, women fishmongers dealing with customers, midwives attending childbirth, people at festivals, cock fights, and hunting scenes among others. Regardless of the subject, these scenes show animated interactions between human and animal participants.

Like the reliefs of Angkor Thom, these were probably enlivened with pigment.

Kingdom of Sukhothai, Thailand (1238 – 1438 CE)

At the dawn of the Common Era Tai groups had begun moving south out of China into Vietnam and then westward into northern Laos and arriving in Thailand by the 10th century. The Tai were subdued by the Khmer Empire and became vassals.

In 1238, a Tai chieftain, Sri Intraditya, renounced his allegiance to the Khmer king and established the independent kingdom of Sukhothai in northcentral Thailand. Sri Indraditya’s followers took the name Thai meaning “free” at this time to distinguish themselves from those Tai still subjects of the Khmer.

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Thailand, Sukhotai, Wat Mahathat, Main Chedi, c. 1292-1347 CE

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7.14 Thailand, Sukhotai, Wat Mahathat, Main Chedi, c. 1292-1347 CE. Built on the grounds of the royal palace and surrounded by a moat, Wat Mahathat also drew on cosmic mountain imagery. The complex had several monumental Buddha images including a 26 ft. (8 m) bronze Buddha. Photo By Hartmann Linge distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

The ruins of the ancient city of Sukhothai show it to have been a fortified city enclosed on four sides by masonry walls and earthen ramparts.

In the center of the city, surrounded by additional brick walls and a moat, were the royal palace and a Buddhist sanctuary known as Wat Mahathat. The Wat Mahathat (“old relic” temple) compound started out as a main chedi or stupa, encircled by eight smaller chedi to invoke Mount Meru, a viharn or sermon hall, an ubsot or ordination hall, and three-square shrines called “mondops”, each of which houses a Buddha statue.

An extraordinary 26-foot bronze Buddha originally stood in the viharn but it was later removed to Bangkok by King Rama I in 1808 CE.

The main chedi sits on a square base, ornamented with 168 stuccoed figures of striding monks and pilgrims, all rendered in Gupta style. These striding figures are a characteristic of Sukhotai style in relief and fully in the round sculpture.

Although the impression of movement is given, the mechanics of movement are not present. Like early Egyptian striding statues, the illusion of movement is accomplished by simply lengthening the non-engaged leg.

The lower level of the stupa proper is ornamented with niches housing seated and standing images of the Buddha; the upper level has scenes from the life of Shakyamuni Buddha.

A tall lotus bud steeple, unique to Sukhotai style, surmounts the main chedi. Subsequent Sukhothai kings enlarged Wat Mahathat, adding some two hundred small chedis in a variety of regional styles, reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of the kingdom.

Thailand, Sukhotai, Wat Mahathat, Base Frieze of the Main Chedi, c. 1292-1347 CE

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7.15 Thailand, Sukhotai, Wat Mahathat, Base Frieze of the Main Chedi, c. 1292-1347 CE. Walking figures are a characteristic of the Sukhotai style in sculpture. However, the illusion is not based on body mechanics but achieved by simply lengthening the non-engaged leg. Photo By Media lib distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

In creating sculptures for the many temples built under royal patronage, Sukhothai artists based their interpretation of metaphors used to describe the Buddha’s physical appearance in the Pali Canon. The Pali text lists the thirty-two lakshana (primary characteristics) and eighty anubyanjana (secondary characteristics), which became the standards for representations of the Buddha.

Following the canon, Sukhothai artists created sitting, standing, and reclining Buddha images in bronze, stone and stucco, some of which were quite large.

The Phra Attharot standing Buddha at Wat Mahathat, for example, is more than 39 feet tall.

Stylistically Sukhothai Buddhas are indebted to the India Gupta style with its body-hugging garments and tight curls. Gupta conventions were brought to Thailand by Singhalese Theravada monks recruited to staff the monasteries and temples of the new Buddhist state.

However, in the hands of Thai artists the old style was revitalized, becoming supple, curvaceous, cylindrical, boneless, and serenely elegant as they interpreted the old Pali canons in new poetic ways.

Study of these canons resulted in an entirely new way of representing the Buddha—as a walking figure. The Pali Canon has several descriptions of the power and majesty with which the Buddha walked, even being specific in the statement that he led with the right foot.

Despite the obvious importance of the theme of walking—following the path– in the life story of the Buddha, before the Sukhothai period, he was generally rendered in art as a static figure.

Among the earliest examples of this new type of image are the stucco niche figures on the main chedi at Wat Mahathat.

Thailand, Sukhotai Walking Buddha, c. 14th Century CE

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7.16 Thailand, Sukhotai Walking Buddha, c. 14th Century CE. Sukhotai walking Buddhas come in a range of sizes with the largest reaching over 39 ft. high but all have remarkable stylistic consistency, making literal the metaphoric descriptions of the Buddha in the Pali Canon. Sukhotai artists rendered the Buddha, seated, standing, reclining and walking. The last being unique to Sukhotai. Photo By Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand – 069 Walking Buddha, 14c, Sukhothai, distributed under a CC BY 2.0 license.

The bronze Walking Buddha illustrates, in an abstracted and fluid form, the many flora and fauna analogies of the Pali Canon: arms like elephant’s trunk, torso like a king lion, thighs like a banana palm, parrot’s beak nose, and level feet.

The Sukhothai artists have not attempted to deal with the physical mechanics of natural human movement.

There is no contrapposto; the Buddha’s hips are perfectly level. The semblance of movement is achieved in the same manner as in the Old Kingdom statue of Menkaure and Khamerernebty: the non-weight-bearing leg has been lengthened.

The Buddha raises his left hand in the fear-dispelling Abhaya mudra.

A flame rises from the top of the Buddha’s ushnisha, a common element in Thai art; it is a sign of the light of supreme knowledge resulting from the Buddha’s enlightenment.

Kingdom of Ayutthaya, Thailand, (1351-1767 CE)

In 1350 CE, Ramathibodi, prince of U Thong, a Mon state in central Thailand, established a new capital which he called Dvaravati Sri Ayudhya; the following year he was crowned king of Ayutthaya.

The kingdom’s name was inspired by the Hindu classic, the Ramayana. Ayutthaya grew rapidly into a rich and powerful state which made vassals of both Sukhothai and the Khmer Empire.

The Siamese kings of Ayutthaya saw themselves as heirs to the Sukhothai and Khmer traditions and incorporated both into their art and architecture.

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Thailand, Ayutthaya, Wat Phra Ram, c. 1369 CE

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7.17 Thailand, Ayutthaya, …

Art of the Non-Western World

Chapter 8: China

Chapter Learning Objectives

Recognize stylistic characteristics, media, and technologies from key periods in Chinese history.

Understand how Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism influenced the development of Chinese art.

Describe the impact of the period of Communist rule, The Cultural Revolution, and the Post-Mao liberalizations on the art in modern China.

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Neolithic China (c. 18,000 – 2,000 BCE)

Between the sixth and third millenniums BCE several advanced pottery-making and stone-working cultures appeared in China.

Early potters were producing fine hand-built ceramics in a variety of forms, some of quite large size, and decorated with incised or painted designs featuring geometric and organic motifs.

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Yangshao Miaodigou type, c.3900-3000 BCE. 4in high x 8 in. diameter

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8.1 Yangshao Miaodigou type, c.3900-3000 BCE. 4in high x 8 in diameter (10.16 x 20.32 cm), negative painted brown pigment on buff clay. Collection of the National Museum of China, Beijing. The matt surface of Yangshao pottery is a result of the use of pigment inks rather than clay slips. Professor. Gary Lee Todd, Sias International University, Xinzheng, Henan, China

The Yangshao and Banpo terracotta wares were found in burials, suggesting that they were ritual rather than utilitarian or everyday vessels.

Yangshao pottery offers a wide variety of forms: amphorae, pedestal bowls, jars, and pitchers.

Although hand-built, Yangshao coil-constructed and scraped vessels are astonishingly symmetrical and thin walled.

Decoration was done by brushing red and brownish-black mineral “inks” onto a cream clay body, resulting in a flat matte finish.

The most common designs were geometric patterns but occasional stylized human, animal, and floral motifs have also been found.

The Painted Earthenware Jar shows a remarkable symmetry of form and uniformly thin walls, indicating that the artists who made this vessel were highly advanced. The shoulder of the jar is decorated with a band of cream daisy-like flowers, defined by a negative ground

The vessel’s rim was painted in a similar manner to define a cream square, enclosing the dark circle of the opening, a combination that seems to suggest the circle-in-square design and earth-sky symbolism of jade kongs.

Jade Lapidary: Kong and Bi

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8.2 Neolithic Liangzhu Culture Jade Cong, c. 3400–2250 BCE Jade Gallery, Aurora Museum, Pudong, Shanghai…

Eastern Zhou Bi Disk , 4th to 3rd century BCE

Professor. Gary Lee Todd, Sias International University, Xinzheng, Henan, China; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.

Jade lapidary began in the Neolithic Period in China but continued as a highly prized craft through subsequent periods into modern times.

Chinese jade is nephrite, often called “soft jade,” but it was still a remarkably hard stone, harder than any metal known to the ancient Chinese.

It comes in a variety of colors, some, such as white jade, being more highly prized than others.

To create objects of jade, Chinese lapidaries laboriously cut nephrite into rough forms and then ground down the stone using sand or quartz grit abrasives. Central openings were drilled using hollow tubes filled with abrasives, while fine cutwork, sometimes seen on Bi disks, was done using a string saw.

Jade colors were associated with the heavens, earth, cardinal directions, and by Confucius with the virtues of a gentleman.

Throughout Chinese history jade was considered more valuable than gold and silver and thus conveyed rank and status; it was also believed to protect the wearer from injury and illness and to insure immortality when buried with the dead.

The two most common jade objects found in burials are the kong and Bi.

Kongs are thought to represent the square of the earth; its hollow cylindrical center suggests the place of the axis mundi, often symbolized as a pole or world tree at the center of the universe.

The circular Bi represented the heavens. The string saw cut dragons around the edges of the disk may represent heavenly dragons while those around the center may perhaps be seen as dragons dwelling within the earth.

The Three Dynasties Period (2070- 221 BCE)

Late first millennia BCE accounts: the Bamboo Annals, Classic of History, and the Records of the Grand Historian, begin Chinese history with the rule of the Yellow Emperor, the mythical ancestor of the Chinese people and bringer of civilization.

He was succeeded by four legendary sage-kings before the formation of the first historical dynasties of the Xia (c. 2070- 1600 BCE), Shang (1766-1111 BCE),and Zhou (1100-221 BCE).

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Sima Qian in his Records of the Grand Historian describes the rule of seventeen Xia kings before the last despotic king was overthrown by the Shang.

Western scholars have long dismissed the Xia as a legendary dynasty, as they once did the Shang. The problem with the Xia is that many of their cities, including the presumptive capital at Erlitou, were subsequently occupied by the Shang.This makes it difficult to determine where one culture ends and the other begins, particularly as the artifacts of both cultures are similar.

Although the question of the Xia is far from resolved, what are believed to be Xia-era tombs were found at Lao Niu Po, Shaanxi province in 2010. While containing artifacts of a type consistent with probable Xia materials excavated at Erlitou, the four Lao Niu Po tombs did not contain any admixture of identifiably Shang materials.

The Shang Dynasty (1766-1111 BCE)

The Shang Dynasty was founded by Zi Lu, a tribal warlord, who took the throne as Cheng Tang and established the first dynastic capital at Shang near the modern city of Zhengzhou.

The Shang capital was moved at least five times, the last capital being Yin near Anyang. Excavations began at the site in 1928 and the burials of 11 Shang kings were discovered.

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Shang, Ritual Wine Vessel (Guang), c. 1200-1046 BCE, Bronze, 6.50 x 3.25 x 8.50 in.

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8.3 Shang, Ritual Wine Vessel ( Guang ), c. 1200-1046 BCE, Bronze, 6.50 x 3.25 x 8.50 in. (16.5 x 8.3 x 21.6 cm). Collection of the Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, The Guennol Collection

The Shang royal tombs contained offerings of worked jade and thousands of cast bronzes, ranging from small tripod vessels for heating wine to large cooking urns weighing as much as 400 pounds. Shang bronze foundries produced at least twenty-four distinct vessel forms using a unique method of casting, known as piece-mold casting.

A Shang Guang or ritual wine vessel, probably from Anyang, is a fine example of Shang-style piece-mold bronze work. This type of vessel was used for pouring wine offerings over the altars of ancestors.

It takes the form of a horned dragon with a humorous bug-eyed face and toothy grin, whose body is completely covered with a complex decorative scheme that combines both modeled and higher-relief zoomorphic forms, some twenty different dragons and birds, together with a geometric low-relief background pattern. Two large taotie or monster masks appear on the sides of the pitcher and two smaller ones are found under the chin and tail of the large dragon. The handle is another animal.

A four-part mold was used to form the pitcher and a two part one for the lid. The artist has incorporated the mold flanges, formed in the pouring of the bronze, into the design scheme, using them to create the spine of the dragon on the lid and the noses of the taotie masks on the sides.

Shang bronze casters are known to have manipulated the surface color and sheen with addition of gold, silver, lead, or arsenic to the melting crucible. The silvery gray surface of this guang was the result of the addition of lead to the alloy.

The Zhou (1100-221 BCE)

The Zhou overthrew the Shang, justifying their takeover as their having been given the “Mandate of Heaven.”

The Zhou created a feudal system, the fengjian, which distributed grants of land to be administered by nobles and court officials loyal to the king.

The first Zhou capital was at Haojing, but after the loss of its western territories in 771 BCE, the government was moved east to Chengzhou. The relocation of the capital marks the historical division of the Zhou into the Western and the Eastern periods.

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The Western Zhou period was a time of economic prosperity and cultural advancement. During this era the sciences of astronomy, physics, and mathematics advanced, a working calendar was developed, and the arts flourished under imperial and feudal patronage.

The Early Zhou were not stylistically progressive.

They adopted Shang religion, philosophy, aesthetics, and employed artists who had worked for the Shang. Thus, their early bronzes are nearly indistinguishable from those of the Shang.

However, by the ninth century BCE, the Zhou began to define a unique style.

Western Zhou, Matched Hu or Wine Vessels, c. 1046-771 BCE

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8.4 Western Zhou, Matched Hu or Wine Vessels, c. 1046-771 BCE , Bronze, 21.75 x 14.75 in (55.2 x 37.5 cm). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The taotie monster masks on these vessels are more subtle than under the Shang. The diamond boss forms the nose and the eyes are found in the center of the upper quadrants, while the handles form the horns of the mask. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Charlotte C. and John C. Weber Collection, Gift of Charlotte C. and John C. Weber through the Live Oak Foundation, 1988

This remarkable pair of bronze hu or wine vessels illustrates the increasing refinement of bronze casting during the Western Zhou period.

Although the surfaces of these large vessels are not as crowded as examples from the Shang era and there are no apparent flanges, these squared pear-shaped vessels seem heavy and clumsy in comparison to the earlier forms.

The ornamental scheme divides each face of the hu into four quadrants separated by wide crossed bands. In the center of each side is a raised diamond-shaped boss, which serves as a nose and when paired with circular “eye” motifs forms a stylized taotie mask.

The eye motifs are bracketed by dragons, now reduced to little more than a series of hooked elements on these vessels.

The long-nosed dragons serving as loops on either side of each wine container, form the horns of the taotie monster.

Eastern Zhou, Spring and Autumn period, Hu Wine Container, c. 770- 476 BCE

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8.5 Eastern Zhou, Spring and Autumn period, Hu Wine Container, c. 770- 476 BCE, Bronze inlaid with copper, 15.4in (39.1 cm) high. Three bands of intertwining dragons decorate the belly of this bronze vessel while at the mouth an inlay of copper, now oxidized, would have created visual contrast. The lid was the serving vessel for the wine. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1999

The Eastern Zhou era is traditionally subdivided into the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods, each of which references a literary work.

The Spring and Autumn Annals takes its name from the court chronicles recorded in the State of Lu from 722 to 481 BCE, and thought to have been edited by Confucius (551-479 BCE.

Despite the turmoil of the era, the Eastern Zhou period was one of continuing advances in the arts and sciences.

Progress was made in bronze working with new technologies for gilding and inlaying metals, lost wax casting, and the introduction of pattern blocks to regularize and speed up the process of bronze decoration.

These new methods allowed Zhou artists to create new and larger vessel forms that were elegantly proportioned and aesthetically refined

During the Spring and Autumn Period one of the first studio practice manuals, the Kao Gong Ji or Book of Diverse Crafts was written. The book provided information on technological processes and alloys used in bronze working and tool manufacturing, lost wax casting, metal inlaying and gilding, dye preparation and dyeing processes, as well as information about other arts.

Compared to earlier Western Zhou forms, the hu or wine container is considerably more sophisticated in concept and execution. The gracefully rounded vessel is divided horizontally into registers of extremely shallow relief, which were pressed into the original using pattern blocks or carved stamps.

The body bands feature interlaced horned dragons as mirrored pairs, while those of the neck and foot are decorated with cloud patterns, suggesting the intertwined dragons are tian-long or heavenly dragons.

Around the mouth of the vessel is a zigzag pattern, where copper was inlaid into the bronze to create an area of color contrast. Three birds are modeled onto the lid of the vessel; these were feet for a shallow bowl that used to serve the wine.

Eastern Zhou, Warring States period, Yongzhong of Marquis Yi of Zheng, c.433 BCE, Bronze, 25 ft

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8.6 Eastern Zhou, Warring States period, Yongzhong of Marquis Yi of Zheng, c.433 BCE, Bronze, 25 ft. (7.62 m) long, Collection of the Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan. Bell sets such as these would be played by five musicians, standing, kneeling, or sitting to reach their section of bells. Each bell produced two notes depending upon where it was struck. Photo by Zzjgbc at Chinese Wikipedia distributed under a GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 license.

The Warring States period takes its name from the Strategies of the Warring States, attributed to Su Qin (380-284 BCE), reflecting a time of almost continual military conflict.

During the Spring and Autumn period military skirmishes between various Zhou states were a common occurrence, and many began to construct defensive walls around their territories. After 500 BCE these regional conflicts escalated to the point of almost continual warfare. Toward the end of the Spring and Autumn period, four Zhou states rose to dominate all the others. These were the Qin in the west, the Jin in the center, the Chu in the south, and the Qi in the east.

In 497 BC a civil war destroyed the Jin state, and its lands were partitioned among the Han, Wei, and Zhao clans. The Jin division marks the beginning of the Warring States Period.

Bronze items continued to be commissioned by the provincial rulers not only for use in their courts but also as furnishings for their tombs. Even the rulers of the smallest states commissioned an amazing number of bronze, gold, and jade items.

In 1978, Chinese archaeologists excavated the tomb of Marquis Yi, ruler of the small state of Zheng, who was buried in 433 BCE. The four-chambered tomb had a central room containing over 10,000 items.

The tomb contained a wide array of musical instruments, including bronze bells, stone chimes, drums, lutes, and sets of reed and bamboo pipes. Confucian philosophers of the age held music in high regard, believing it brought harmony and purity of mind to the listener.

The Yongzhong of Marquis Yi is a set of 65 bronze chime-bells suspended from a triple bronze frame measuring some 25 feet in overall length. Each row had bells of different sizes and diameters and each elliptical bell could produce two notes: one, when struck with a wooden mallet in the center and another, when struck on the side.The total range of the bell set was eight and a half octaves.

The Yongzhong required five musicians to play it. Depending upon their assigned bells, they stood, knelt or sat. Each bell has nine raised bosses; nine is considered to be a lucky number. Above the rim of each bell is a decorative band of interlaced dragons.

The Qin Empire (221-207 BC)

In 221 BCE, Ying Zheng, Marquis of Qin, conquered the last of the old Zhou provincial states and declared the Qin Dynasty.

He took the title of Qin Shi Huang” meaning “First August and Divine Emperor of Qin.”

Qin Shi Huang, laid the foundations of the Chinese nation. He introduced a number of reforms to facilitate the smooth functioning of the empire, including dividing the state into prefectures, instituting a uniform system of weights and measures and a single currency, standardizing the writing of Chinese characters, and imposing Legalism as a governing philosophy.

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Qin, Tomb of Qin Shi Huang, Terracotta Warrior, c. 215-210 BCE

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8.7 Qin, Tomb of Qin Shi Huang, Terracotta Warrior, c. 215-210 BCE. The Qin Emperor was accompanied into the afterlife by an army of several thousand terracotta warriors. These were mass-produced using molds and the finished pieces assembled and painted to make them more lifelike. Photo by Laika ac from UK distributed under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

A second massive project was Qin Shi Huang monumental mausoleum, which took 720,000 workers thirty-six years to complete. The tomb lies under an artificial mountain rising to a height of 247 feet, and according to historian Sima Qian, it contains a replica of the Qin kingdom and palace, with rivers and lakes of liquid mercury, and the stars of the night sky replicated with pearls on the ceiling of the vault.

The mound was set within two earthen-walled courts, an arrangement that reflected Zhou concepts of city design, which located the palace of the ruler within a walled court at the center of the city around which the outer city walls defined a second court.

East of the mound and outside the enclosing walls is a garrison of several thousand terracotta warriors. It is possible that Qin Shi Huang believed his vanquished enemies were waiting for him in the afterlife as he placed his soldiers facing east toward the conquered Zhou states.

Unlike the rulers of the preceding dynasties, Qin Shi Huang prepared for the battles of eternity, not by having soldiers killed to accompany him in death, but by having them replicated in terracotta.

The soldiers were mass-produced, using section molds for the legs and torso. The assembled figures were brightly painted with colored lacquers, which, unfortunately, crumbled to dust when the figures were exposed to dry air. Heads were modeled separately and pegged into the neck. They are so individualized that it has been suggested that they are actual portraits. It is more probable that they meant to depict peoples from different regions of the empire.

The terracotta warriors would have been a formidable army. Infantrymen stood between 5 feet 8 inches and 6 feet 2 inches while generals were 6 feet 5 inches, tall even by modern standards. Originally, each soldier was equipped with weapons appropriate to his military function, but these were looted by peasant rebels during the insurrection that ended the Qin Empire.

The Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220)

The Qin Dynasty was brought down in a revolt led by a peasant general named Liu Pang, who was such an effective and courageous leader that his fellow rebels elected him emperor.

Liu Pang took the throne as Han Gaozu. He was an effective ruler, consolidating the advances of the Qin while repairing some of Shi Huangdi’s worst abuses.

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Han, Mawangdui, Funeral Banner of Lady Dai (Xin Zhui), c.168 BCE

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8.9 Han, Mawangdui, Funeral Banner of Lady Dai (Xin Zhui), c.168 BCE, Ink on silk, 80.7 x 36.2 x 18.7 in. (205 x 92 x 47.7 cm), Collection of the Hunan Provincial Museum. The banner, which was laid over the innermost of Lady Dai’s four nested coffins, shows her journey through life through the underworld and into the heavenly realm of the ancestors. Changsha Hunan Provincial Museum

In 1971, an extraordinarily rich and well-preserved Han tomb, belonging to Xin Zhui, wife of the Marquis of Dai, was discovered at Mawangdui. When archaeologists opened the innermost of Lady Dai’s four nested wooden coffins, they were astonished to find no signs of decomposition. Her skin was elastic, limbs bendable, internal organs intact and the blood in her veins was still red more than two millennia after her death.

Lady Dai’s tomb contained more than a thousand items: cosmetics, food delicacies, silk textiles, books, lacquerware, and a small army of carved wooden figurines representing the servants who would tend to Lady Dai’s every need in the afterlife.

One of these rare survivals in Lady Dai’s tomb was a large T-shaped painted silk banner carried in the funeral procession, and afterward draped over the innermost of her four nested coffins.

The banner is divided vertically into the three cosmological realms of heavens, earth, and the underworld, and horizontally into Yin (female) on the left side and Yang (male) on the right.

The banner illustrates Lady Dai’s journey from the world of the living through the underworld and ultimately into the heavenly realm of the ancestors. Lady Dai’s image on the banner is one of the earliest known portraits in Chinese art.

She is shown in the middle section, standing on a dais and supporting herself with a cane that is similar to one actually found in the tomb. She is attended by three court ladies and receives the kowtows of two mourners.

Beneath this scene is a bi disk with two dragons intertwining through its center opening. This common tomb object is a symbol of immortality.

At the bottom of the banner, Lady Dai’s funerary feast has been set up under a canopy; her presence here is suggested by the coffin and offerings. Depicted on the horizontal part of the banner is the celestial realm, which is entered through a gateway guarded by two court officials.

In the middle of this celestial realm the Cup of Immortality is held up by a pair of riders who are flanked by dragons and felines. In the center top sits Xi Wangmu, the goddess of immortality and personification of Yin or femininity. To her left is the crescent moon with the Moon Toad and Hare. To her right are the Sun with its Raven and eight small suns, referencing the nine suns of the Archer Yi myth and symbolizing the masculine or Yang.

The Period of Disunity (220-581 CE)

The final collapse of the Han, in 220 CE, ushered in a four-centuries-long era of almost continual civil war, and frequent regime change, generalized as the Period of Disunity.

As had happened during the Warring States Period, the arts flourished in the various kingdoms of the north and south, especially as the new religion of Buddhism gained widespread acceptance.

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Northern Wei, Yungang Caves, Buddha of Cave 20, c. 453 CE, 45.5 ft. high

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8.10 Northern Wei, Yungang Caves, Buddha of Cave 20, c. 453 CE, 45.5 foot (14 meter) high. The Buddha and his attendants were originally covered with a layer of burnished lime plaster, still visible in the brighter areas, which protected the soft limestone from spalling. This covering was anchored to the stone by wooden pegs, some of the holes for these are still visible on the sculpture. Photo By Marcin Biatek distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

The Northern Wei Dynasty was founded in 396 CE by the Xianbei leader, Tuoba Gui. During the reign of Emperor Wencheng (r. 453-459), Buddhism was adopted as the state religion and as an act of devotion, the emperor commissioned the first five cave temples at Yungang on Mount Wuzhou.

The carving of caves 16 through 20, known as the Imperial Caves, was carried out under the direction of the monk Tan Yao. Little is known about the artist other than he came from Gansu Province, where, several Buddhist cave sites were known around the Silk Route center of Dunhuang.

Northern Wei patronage at Yungang continued until 494 CE when the capital was moved to Luoyang.

The focal point of each cave was a monumental Buddha image; the smallest of these being more than 32 feet high. The walls of the grottos were also densely carved with relief images of the Buddha, some only a few inches tall.

The style of the five Imperial Buddhas owes much to earlier Gandharan prototypes brought from India. The largest of the Tan Yao sculptures is the 45.5-foot Buddha of Cave 20.

The immense, square-shouldered Buddha sits in a posture of meditation, attended by two standing Buddhas, one of which has been damaged by spalling.

To heighten to heighten the realism of the face, the iris of the eyes is deeply incised and the pupil indicated with an inlay of black stone. The most distinctive feature of these Buddhas are large pendulous ears which almost touch the shoulders of the Buddha.

As indicated by the double-row of square mortise holes in the cave wall, just above and on either side of the Buddha’s head, a shielding wooden roof was once raised over the sandstone figures.

Also, as a protective measure, and to heighten the naturalism of the image, the projecting central Buddha was originally covered with a layer of plaster and presumably painted, although no traces of pigment remain. The rows of drill-holes evident in spalled areas once held wooden pegs used to anchor the plaster to the stone core.

The five Imperial Buddhas are thought to have depicted rulers of the Tuoba dynasty in the guise of living Buddhas. The Cave 20 Buddha is believed to a portrait of Crown Prince Jigmu, Emperor Wencheng’s father.

Six Dynasties, Gu Kaizhi Admonitions of the Instructress to the Palace Ladies Handscroll, Lady Feng and the Bear c. 600-700 CE

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8.11 Six Dynasties, Gu Kaizhi (c. 344- c. 406), Admonitions of the Instructress to the Palace Ladies Handscroll, Scene 4: Lady Feng and the Bear (copy), C. 600-700 CE, ink on silk, Collection of the British Museum. Gu Kaizhi’s painting originally included 11 scenes based on a satirical text by Zhang Hua (c. 232-300 CE.) The scenes were intended to show correct female behavior according to Confucianism. The British Museum

The Six Dynasties Period was a time of political instability, as six successive dynasties ruled briefly in the south of China. It was also a time when the arts prospered in the Nanjing courts and artists began to garner individual attention for their work. One of those was Gu Kaizhi (c. 344- c. 406), a painter at the Eastern Jin court and the first Chinese artist whose name is known to history

Gu Kaizhi was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu and was the son of a government official. He is recorded as having been a prolific painter, producing more than 70 paintings, but only three have survived in the form of later Tang and Sung copies: Admonitions of the Instructress to the Palace Ladies, Nymph of the Luo River, and Wise and Benevolent Women.

Gu Kaizhi’s Admonitions Scroll takes its story from Zhang Hua’s satirical account of life at the Western Jin court during the reign of Emperor Hui. The emperor was not of sound mind and his wife Jia Nan Feng was the de facto ruler of the empire from 291 to 300 CE.

In a world governed by Confucian philosophy, Jia Nan Feng’s behavior was considered inappropriate; women, even Empresses, were expected to be submissive and meek, not murderous and power-hungry.

The scenes of the Admonitions Scroll are intended to present Confucian moral exemplars, behaviors either emulate or avoid. They are presented as a series of lessons by the court Instructress, whose job it is to teach proper conduct to the court ladies.

The handscroll was organized into nine scenes separated by moralizing couplets; unfortunately, parts of the original have been lost.

The first surviving scene is the fourth, which shows Lady Feng stepping into the path of an escaped black bear, sacrificing herself to prevent it from attacking the emperor Han Yuandi, while his other concubine runs away.

Lady Feng’s heroic, self-sacrificing act is intended to serve as a model of correct behavior. The setting for this scene is minimal, the space implied rather than defined; that the event is taking place in the palace is assumed rather than shown by the artist.

With the possible exception of the Emperor, the scene has no true portraits. The faces of the soldiers as well as those of the ladies are depictions of generic type, rather than individuals. The scene demonstrates the use of hierarchical scale with each person being sized in accordance with their rank and importance.

The Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE)

In 589, after almost three hundred years of political chaos, China was reunited under the short-lived Sui Dynasty.

TheSui were overthrown in 618 CE by Li Yuan, Duke of Tang, who established the Tang Dynasty.

Taking the throne as Emperor Gaozu, he made his capital at Chang’an an important hub of the Silk Route. Under the Tang, Chang’an became a cosmopolitan city, its streets filled with foreign traders, artisans, and the embassies of China’s far-flung trading partners.

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Tang, Tomb Figure of a Neighing Horse, c. 700-800 CE

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8.12 Tang, Tomb Figure of a Neighing Horse, c. 700-800 CE, earthenware with sancai glaze, 30 x 33 x 11 in. (76 x 84 x 28 cm), Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The Ferghana horses depicted in Tang era tombs are much different from the cobby-bodied ponies in Shi Huang Di’s tomb, they had longer legs and more powerful chests and were thought to be the finest horses of their time. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Gift of Mrs. Robert Solomon, 2009, Museum no. C-50-1964

Tang tombs are famous for their burial …

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