Highlights of religion, history, architecture, sculpture, and painting from the Asian region. Based on the textbook "Gateways to Art" (2012).

1. Art of India, China, and Japan
T, R, 9:30AM-10:50AM
Professor Paige Prater

2. Mapping it!

3. Asian Religious Traditions
• Buddhism
– Buddha’s teaching (563-483 BCE) – life’s
difficulties>enlightenment>nirvana
• Confucianism
– Confucius’ philosophy (551-479 BCE) – ethics for social
order
• Daoism – The Way
– Lao Zi (604 BCE) – Dao de jing: harmony with universe
• Hinduism – karma, reincarnation, polytheistic
• Shintoism- The Way of the Gods – respect for
nature and ancestors, polytheistic. Kami = spirits

4. Overview of Asian Artistic Styles
• Indian art: elaborate decoration/human body;
sensual
• Chinese art: religion, heritage, and ancestors;
precise, symmetrical
• Japanese art: nature; asymmetrical, organic,
spontaneous, contemplative

5. Art of India
• Buddhist and Hindu
Great Stupa, third
century BCE,
enlarged under the
Sunga and Andhra
Dynasties, c. 150–
50 BCE, Sanchi, India

6. Detail of East gate at Great Stupa, 3rd
Century BCE
• Pilgrims: east gate,
clockwise
• Stupas/gateways
(toranas)=
recreation of the
universe in a 3D
mandala pattern.
• 35’ columns
• Scenes of
Buddha’s multiple
lives (jatakas)

7. Bodhisattva Padmapani,
Cave 1, Ajanta, India. Cave
painting, second half of 5th century
• 29 caves carved into a
horse-shoe-shaped cliff in
Ajanta (western India)
• Buddhist
sculptures/paintings
• Lotus
• Bodhissatva – one who
achieved nirvana but
voluntarily stays to help
others reach enlightenment

8. Indian Art: Hinduism
• 3rd largest world
religion; most
followers in India
• Large temple
complex in
northern India
• Dedicated to
Shiva, Hindu god
of creation and
destruction
Kandariya Mahadeva temple, c. 1000,
Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India

9. Detail of exterior
sculpture, Kandariya
Mahadeva temple
• More than 600
sculptures
• Sensual
• Unity of
male/female
represents unity of
cosmos

10. Indian Art: ISLAM
• Mid-16th century, Mughals took over India
(Mongolian descent, Muslim), ruled hundreds of
years
– Jahangir, “World Conqueror” (1569-1627)
– Shah Jahan, (1592-1666) and wife, Mumtaz Mahal
(1593-1631)
• Sufism
• Commissioned artworks
– Persian
– Indian

11. Bichitr, Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaykh
to Kings, from the St. Petersburg album,
Mughal Dynasty, c. 1615–18. Opaque
watercolor, gold, and ink on paper, 18⅞ ×
13”. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C

12. Taj Mahal, 1631-1648, Agra, India
• White marble inscribed; reflects the sun
• Dome: 58’ diameter, 213’ tall

13. Art of China
• 221 BCE – first unified Chinese
dynasty
• Buddhism and Daoism
• Calligraphy
– Different dialects, ONE written
form of communication!
Wang Xizhi Portion of a Letter from the Feng Ju
Album, mid-4th century CE, 24.7 x46.8 cm.

14. Art of China
• Scene from life of
well-known Chinese
writer: Ge Zichuan
– First alchemist
– Daoist
Wang Meng, Ge Zhichuan Moving His
Dwelling, c.1360. Hanging scroll, ink and
color on paper, 54¾ × 22⅞”. Palace
Museum, Beijing, China

15. Art of China
Zhang Zeduan, Along the River during the Qingming Festival, Northern
Song Dynasty, 11th century. Handscroll, ink and color on silk, 10” × 17’
3”. Palace Museum, Beijing, China

16. Zhang Zeduan, Along the River
during the Qingming Festival,
Northern Song Dynasty, 11th
century. DETAIL
• 800 people, daily
activities
• Right to left

17. Art of China
• Respect of afterlife
• Tomb objects
Ritual wine vessel (guang),
late Shang dynasty, c. 1700–
1050 BCE. Bronze, 6½ × 3¼ ×
8½”. Brooklyn Museum, New
York

18. • Lady Dai –
noblewoman from
Han Dynasty
• Tomb excavated in
1972
Detail from painted banner from tomb of
Lady Dai Hou Fu-ren, Han Dynasty, c. 168
BCE. Silk. Hunan Museum, Changsha,
China

19. Art of Japan
• Buddhism and
Shintoism
• Chanoyu – Way of
the Tea; peace and
solace, zen buddhism
• Tsumugi-ori
textiles
– Water, light, and
wind
– kimonos
Sonoko Sasaki, Sea in the Sky,
2007.Tsumugi-ito silk thread and vegetable
dyes, 70⅞ × 51¼”. Collection of the artist

20. Sonoko Sanaki at her loom…

21. Art of Japan
• 16th century tea
master
• Only remaining room
by him
Sen no Rikyu, Taian teahouse,
interior, c. 1582. Myoki-an
Temple, Kyoto, Japan