Collections: Asian Art

Indian

Bodhisattva Maitreya

Maitreya is the bodhisattva who will be the next mortal Buddha to appear on earth. His name in Sanskrit means “friendly and benevolent.” In Mahayana Buddhism, a bodhisattva is an enlightened being who has done everything necessary to attain nirvana but instead of progressing to that state has held back in order to help other human beings who are still on the path to that goal. Maitreya is shown with half closed eyes, a sign of his spiritual detachment. He is splendidly bejeweled and in his left hand holds a flask, his defining attribute. His right hand, now lost, originally made the gesture of reassurance and protection (abhaya mudra). He has the mark of enlightenment (urna) on his forehead. The cranial bump on the top of his head (ushnisha), the sign of superior intellect, has been rendered as a hair knot––a stylistic convention that resulted from Greco-Roman artistic influence.

Bodhisattva Maitreya
Pakistan (Gandhara)
Ca. 2nd-3rd century
Schist
(84.66)
Gift of Mr. Eric Neff

Ganesha, the Lord of Ganas

Vigorous, dwarfish Ganesha, attendant of the Hindu god Shiva, carries a battleaxe (symbol of power) and a noose in his upper hands and a broken tusk in his lower right hand. With his trunk he is enjoying sweets. He wears a crown of lotus and a jeweled headband, and flowers decorate his shoulders. A stomach band restrains his belly. The four-stranded “sacred thread” around his torso is tied in a bow above the left nipple. A jeweled girdle secures his lower garment called a dhoti.

The two upright spikes attached to the base are meant to carry an aureole (a full-body halo) that surrounded the image, and the two lugs on each side were used to carry the figure in procession on festive occasions. Though tied to canonical religious texts that specify certain detailed ornamentation for the gods, the artist, using slight tribhanga (the posture style using three bends), has expressed grandeur through the plasticity of the figure, a characteristic of sculpture of the Chola period.

Chinese

Gui, Food Vessel

Food vessels of this sort were placed in the graves of the deceased along with sacrificial victims, weapons, and tools as offerings to the spirits. They were cast in multi-part molds and often had intricate details rendered in relief, thus demonstrating the artisans complete mastery of the medium. The vessels’ shapes were derived from earlier ceramic prototypes.

This vessel has a rounded body on a ring foot, with two handles attached to a gently flaring rim. On the neck, a motif of “feathered dragons” can be discerned, interrupted midway between the handles by a small animal head in relief. Open-jawed feline heads spring from the tops of the loop handles. An incised inscription is on the base of the interior.

The comparative simplicity of design motifs and the lack of high sculptural relief on this particular vessel would tentatively place it in the Shang period. The motifs on this gui and its size and shape compare, however, with vessels excavated near Luoyang, in Henan Province, dating to the early Western Zhou period, 1100-770 B.C.

Gui, Food Vessel
China, Early Western Zhou Dynasty
Ca. 11th century B.C.
Bronze
(65.158)
Gift of Mr. J. Lionberger Davis

Japanese

Furyu shogei no nishiki
(Elegant Brocade Fabrics for the Arts)
Kitagawa Utamaro

Kitagawa Utamaro is considered the dominating ukiyo-e artist of the late eighteenth century, but little is known of his life. His original name was Ichitaro Kitagawa, and he changed his name to Utamaro in 1782 after completing his studies with several printmakers.

Utamaro was known for his images of tragic lovers and portraits of beautiful women, particularly those from the “pleasure quarters”: geisha, waitresses, and entertainers. Although supposedly realistic, Utamaro’s women are rather uniformly idealized beauties with elongated features and bodies. Even so, his prints enjoyed great commercial success and were exported to Europe in the early nineteenth century.

The three women in this print are making music with two drums and a shamisen, a four-stringed instrument resembling a guitar. These are the principal instruments of traditional Japanese music and were used for entertaining in teahouses, as well as providing accompaniment for dances on the kabuki theater.