CENTER FOR THE ART OF EAST ASIA
DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
List Gallery

Showing  1 - 25 of 150 Records

Relevance Title (A-Z) Title (Z-A) Date (Ascending) Date (Descending)
25 50 100
Showing  1 - 25 of 150 Records
  Map Filter   Date Filter
Active filters
Material: limestone   Work Type: sculpture   Remove all  

88 figures

150 image
Disciple Standing
  • Title Translation: 弟子
  • Period: Northern Qi, 589-618 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
  • Work Description: Expressing serene dignity, these youthful monks stand erect, their eyes downcast and hands firmly joined in reverent prayer. Their long earlobes allude to earrings that were worn by the Buddha as a young Indian prince and to his rejection of material wealth. Characteristic of Sui dynasty sculpture, the monks’ sharply defined facial features and the folds of their robes enhance the figures’ flat, understated modeling. Each of their robes was originally painted with rectangles of different colors, signifying the patchwork mantle worn by the Buddha and by pious monks who emulated his humble values. Only shadowy traces of these pigments are now evident.

Buddha Head
  • Title Translation: 佛头
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves

Musician Pipa
  • Title Translation: 琵琶乐伎
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves

Bodhisattva Hand
  • Title Translation: 菩萨手
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves

Monk Kneeling
  • Title Translation: 跪僧侣
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
  • Work Description: The North Xiangtangshan Grottoes are located in the Fengfeng mining district of Handan city, Hebei province. These caves are major Northern Qi dynasty caves that are thought to have been commissioned by imperial order. The South Cave of the grottoes was begun in 568, and the main surface and its two flanking walls are carved with large niches. This image is one of a pair of seated Buddhist priest figures carved in relief on either side of a large censer in the platform area of one of the side walls. The figure hunches over, with its mouth tightly closed as it holds something with both hands, exuding a particularly tranquil demeanor.

Bodhisattva Hand
  • Title Translation: 菩萨手
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves

Disciple Hands
  • Title Translation: 弟子手
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves

Guardian Head
  • Title Translation: 天王、护法力士头
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves

Disciple Ananda Head
  • Title Translation: 弟子阿难头
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves

Bodhisattva Standing
  • Title Translation: 菩萨立像
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
  • Work Description: This free-standing Bodhisattva is related to the image style of the Xiangtangshan cave temples and stylistically dates to about the same time, ca. 560s–70s during the Northern Qi Dynasty in northeastern China. It possesses the characteristically columnar form of the Xiangtangshan sculptures, though the jewel forms appear slightly more subdued than usual. The posture is frontal and unbending, indicating, as with the Xiangtangshan sculptures in general, a sense of inner, irrevocable solidity and firmness. The human body is disclosed in its most primordial shape with thin, close-fitting robes smoothing out the surfaces. Jewelry makes its own symmetric patterns of heavy, raised, textured pearl chains, X-crossed in shape as they cover the frontal expanse and contrast with the sharp edges of the bands of the hems and long shoulder scarves that descend as a framing statement to the lotus pedestal. A youthful, serene face appears remote and distant, though still human, above the rather massive form. Impressive in its monumentality, this bodhisattva exemplifies the sixth-century style of early Buddhist art in China. He stands on a lotus pedestal, which signals his transcendent nature as a being that has surpassed the mundane human state in knowledge and compassion. The mass of his body and the equal distribution of weight on both feet impart an iconic quality to this object of worship.

Pratyekabuddha Standing
  • Title Translation: 辟支(缘觉)佛立像
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves

Bodhisattva Standing
  • Title Translation: 菩萨立像
  • Period: Sui, 581-518 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
  • Work Description: Bodhisattva in standing position, head and hands turned away. Draped in a tightly enveloping dhoti and a long shawl, falling over the shoulders and arm, thin ornamental folds.

Bodhisattva Standing
  • Title Translation: 菩萨立像
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
  • Work Description: Carved out of one piece of stone, this bodhisattva stands barefooted on a base and wears a long gown, ornate jewelry, and a large rosette-shaped crown. The rounded, solid form and the solemn facial expression convey the deity's grace and compassion, and mark an artistic departure from the foreign influence of India and Central Asia toward a new, distinguished Chinese style. This statue comes from Xiangtangshan (Mountains of Resounding Halls), a Buddhist cave complex built on a hillside near Handan in Hebei province, and is one of the earliest Buddhist statues built in this complex. Its construction was funded by Emperor Gao Yang of the Northern Qi dynasty.

Southern Xiangtangshan, seated buddha
  • Title Translation: 南响堂山洞穴群 , 坐佛
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
  • Work Description: The two main groups of caves are known as Northern and Southern Xiangtangshan. The Northern Group, Bei Xiangtang, is the earliest and largest in scale and has three caves begun with imperial sponsorship; the Southern Group, Nan Xiangtang, has smaller caves numbered from one to seven; and a third site at Shuiyusi, also known as Xiao Xiangtang or “Little Xiangtang,” has one Northern Qi cave with sculptures.

Southern Xiangtangshan, standing bodhisattva
  • Title Translation: 南响堂山洞穴群 , 立菩萨
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
  • Work Description: The two main groups of caves are known as Northern and Southern Xiangtangshan. The Northern Group, Bei Xiangtang, is the earliest and largest in scale and has three caves begun with imperial sponsorship; the Southern Group, Nan Xiangtang, has smaller caves numbered from one to seven; and a third site at Shuiyusi, also known as Xiao Xiangtang or “Little Xiangtang,” has one Northern Qi cave with sculptures.

Disciple Hands
  • Title Translation: 弟子手
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
  • Work Description: The Xiangtangshan Caves located in the Fengfeng Mining District in Handan, Hebei Province, are clustered in two groups: Northern and Southern Xiangtangshan. They represent the finest of grotto art produced in the Northern Qi dynasty (550-577 CE). This pair of limestone hands originally belonged to the Middle Cave at Northern Xiangtangshan, constructed during the reign of Emperor Wenxuan (550-559) of the Northern Qi dynasty. The cave is a huge central-pillared cave with a corridor in front of a main chamber, the second largest of all caves at Xiangtangshan. Old pictures have shown that this fragmented piece originally belonged to the left acolyte disciple of a grouping featuring Śākyamuni Buddha flanked by two Bodhisattvas and two disciples in the large niche at the front of the central pillar. This disciple’s lean and rather aged face suggests that he is Mahākāśyapa, one of the ten principal disciples of Śākyamuni. He was deemed the foremost in ascetic dhūta practice. Before the Buddha passed away, he entrusted Mahākāśyapa with the task of imparting the Buddhist Dharma. After the Buddha entered parinirvāṇa, Mahākāśyapa became the head of the monastic community and convened the First Council at Rājagṛha for compiling Buddhist canon. Thereafter, he continued to lead the monastic community for more than two decades. Although fragmented, this work is amazingly realistic. The left hand with palm up is holding a reliquary, while the fingers of the right hand are pressing against the lid. Both hands are soft and fleshy, as if boneless. The fingers are nimble, and the curvature of each finger differs. It is worth noting that the carver did not illustrate the knuckles, but rather, greatly emphasising the softness and texture of the hands. The fingernails are also finely represented. The hands look fleshy but not chubby; the gesture natural and lively. Overall, the carver’s superb artistry is well demonstrated.

Figure of Wei Mo Chi from the Longmen Grottoes
  • Title Translation: 龙门石窟韦莫池像
  • Period: Northern Wei, 386–534 C.E.
  • Project: Longmen Binyang Central Cave
  • Work Description: The Longmen Caves are located outside the city of Luoyang, China, about 500 miles southeast of the modern-day capital in Beijing. Established in the late fifth century, the site consists of 2,345 caves, and over 100,000 individual Buddhist statues, ranging in height from a few inches to over 56 feet. For more than 250 years, Chinese Buddhists from all walks of life sponsored the addition of Buddhist statues and inscriptions to the site, most significantly from the late Northern Wei (386-534) through the Tang dynasty (618-907). Binyang Central Cave is one of the earliest at Longmen and a major monument of Chinese Buddhism. Begun around the year 501, it was commissioned by the youthful Emperor Xuanwu (483-515) and dedicated to his father, Emperor Xiaowen, who died in 499 at age thirty-three. The cave is one of the major monuments of Chinese Buddhism. MEasuring roughly 30 feet in each dimension, its principal image is 28-foot-high seated Buddha largly filling the back of the cave and accompanied by smaller standing figures—disciples, Buddhas, and bodhisattva—on either side. The exit wall contained some of the finest stone relief carvings of the era, including depictions of two imperial processions, and a number of stories from Buddhist scriptures. After cave-making was discontinued for nearly a thousand years, the Longmen site was "discovered" by foreign scholars in the late 1800s. The publication of their studies with photos attracted international attention to the artistic quality of the sculptures. The publications ultimately led to the looting of much of the site in the early part of the twentieth century. In response to demand from art dealers, collectors, and museums around the globe, local stonecutters removed countless works from the caves, often breaking them into numerous fragments in the process. Pieces from the greater Longmen complex can now be found scattered throughout the world. In Binyang Central Cave, several heads and large portions of the relief carvings were cut or burned out of the walls. Fragments from Binyang Central Cave now reside in museums in the US and Japan, as well as in storage at the Longmen Research Institute in China. Many shattered pieces are identifiable today with the evidence of historical photographs and rubbings taken of the reliefs before their removal.

Seated Maitreya
  • Title Translation: 弥勒坐像
  • Period: Northern Wei, Tang, 386–534 C.E., 618–907 C.E.
  • Project: Sculptures in Longmen Caves

Buddha with Two Attendants in a Niche
  • Title Translation: 如来三尊佛龛
  • Period: Tang, 704 C.E.
  • Project: Guangzhai Temple Qibaotai Pagoda

Buddha with Two Attendants in a Niche
  • Title Translation: 如来三尊佛龛
  • Period: Tang, 703 C.E.
  • Project: Guangzhai Temple Qibaotai Pagoda

Maitreya with Two Attendants in a Niche
  • Title Translation: 弥勒三尊佛龛
  • Period: Tang, 703 C.E.
  • Project: Guangzhai Temple Qibaotai Pagoda

Monster Kneeling
  • Title Translation: 跪鬼神
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
  • Work Description: This kneeling monster from the cave-temple complex at Xiangtangshan was originally placed below some wall niches on the perimeter. With its grotesque face and body, it is among the most imaginative sculptures of the period.

Bodhisattva Head
  • Title Translation: 菩萨头
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves

Musician Sheng
  • Title Translation: 笙乐伎
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
  • Work Description: Simply rounded forms chiseled from gray limestone create this engaging relief of a celestial musician, known as an apsaras in Sanskrit or tianjen in Chinese, depicted playing the sheng. This instrument is a mouth organ consisting of a number of bamboo pipes of different lengths, a pipe for blowing in air, and fingering keyholes.1 The musician gently holds the sheng in both hands, and his closed eyes and beatific expression convey a sense of rapture in its heavenly sounds. Apsarases, usually represented as females, are flying celestials, often musicians or dancers, hovering in attendance to Buddhas and bodhisattvas in paradise scenes. Paradise cults offered Buddhist believers salvation in the form of rebirth into a paradise where attainment of nirvana was easy and certain. The available evidence from the mid-sixth century and later, such as the large relief depicting the Paradise of Amitabha now in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., as well as a number of votive stelae, indicate the rising influence of paradise cults in China at this time.2 By the mid-sixth century, more ascetic ethereal forms with complex cascades of drapery and scarves had shifted to the rounded, more expansive forms defined by closer fitting and simpler garments, as in this example. Xiangtangshan, one of the important early Buddhist cave temple complexes in northern China, which was opened in the mid-sixth century, preserves excellent examples of these later stylistic features. The Xiangtangshan cave temples are believed to have been established by two Northern Qi emperors, both great devotees of the Buddhist religion. These caves temples lie across the frontier of two provinces: the northern group of caves is in Wuan prefecture, Henan province, and the southern group in Zixian prefecture, Hebei province.3 The Shumei musician was probably removed from a wall of the northern temple group at Xiangtangshan. Examples of sculpture from Xiangtangshan are extremely rare outside of China; two more fragmentary relief sculptures are in a private collection in Japan: the head and shoulders of a lute player and a flute player, both of which share stylistic features with the Shumei example.4 ALJ 1. Sheng became visible in tombs at least as early as the Western Han period, with examples preserved in lacquered wood in Tombs 1 and 3 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province, c. 168 B.C. (see Pirazzoli-t'Serstevens 1982, p. 54). The instrument was also quite common in tombs during the Three Kingdoms-Six Dynasties period. 2. See Pal 1984, pp. 272-73; Wright 1971, p. 59 and n.2; and Davidson 1954, pp. 58-61. The large relief now in the Freer Gallery was probably taken from Cave II of the southern group of Buddhist cave temples at Xiangtangshan and shows remarkable resemblance to composition found at Borobudur (see Soper 1960, p. 95). For an additional Northern Qi example see Shanghai 1996, no. 38. 3. Mizuno and Nagahiro 1937, pp. 1-10. 4. Ibid., introductory essay, pl. 4. Both the fragmentary lute player and the flute player are in the collection of Shoichi Fujiki, Tarazuka, Japan.

Bodhisattva Standing Guanyin
  • Title Translation: 观世音菩萨
  • Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
  • Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
  • Work Description: Statue of a standing bodhisattva made of dark stone, brown and stained with age, with traces of red, green and blue pigment. The bodhisattva has a long face, plump cheeks, eyes nearly closed, with very long lobed ears, unpierced. There is a jeweled tiara with small a aureole in front on which is carved a tiny standing figure of Amida Buddha. There are streamers from the headdress with elaborately draped scarfs and jewels hanging down over the skirt. The statue is bare foot with no pedestal but does have a tang that comes out the bottom of the piece. C113, C150 and C151 are a set and come from Cave #2 of the Southern Xiangtangshan cave complex.