Yungang “Cloud Ridge” Temple In Datong, the first Capital of the Northern Wei. At this site, more than 50 main caves were carved out of sandstone in the cliffs. At cave 20 is a colossal Buddha with attendant Buddha (Possibly Maitreya). Although he appears to be seated in a niche, he was originally in a cave that has since worn away. This Buddha represents the mesh of Indian and Chinese styles called Archaic Style. This Buddha is smiling, with his lips closed and turned up slightly in the corner. The interior caves are covered with relieved walls with sculptures of Buddhas of varying sizes. Many families (Especially of the upper class) commissioned shrines and reliefs.
Heian Period Japan 794-1185 CE, Esoteric Buddhism
Taizokai (Womb World Mandala) ink and colors on silk. Heian, 859-880. This is a series of co-centric squares, with the center being a flower with red petals, each petal holding a Buddha on it.
The opposite is the Kongokai (Diamond World Mandala). The upper square of the Diamond Mandala shows the Dainichi Nyorai, an embodiment of the extreme spiritual universe.
Shingon — “true word” or “mantra”. Established by Kukai (poet/monk/scholar/explorer), on Mount Koya. Based on Mahavairocana Sutra. It’s esoteric or “secret” in the sense that its teachings cannot be learned from scriptures - teachings are passed directly from teacher to student. Some concepts: Buddha possessed two aspects, the phenomental body, manifested by specific Buddhas like Shakyamuni, and the absolute or ineffable bodies. They were not separate, but considered different manifestations of the same absolute principle.
Top: Peonies, Morning Glories, Cherries, and Chinese Cotton. Jiang Tingxi, 1669-1732. Ink and Color on Gold Paper Fan. Phoenix Art Museum.
Bottom: Summer Flowers. Unknown Artist. Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) 18th Century. Ink and Color on Gold Paper Fan. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I thought everyone would like to see the objects I’m writing on for my Chinese Painting class. I had the distinct pleasure of viewing the top fan at the Phoenix Art Museum up close and in person, and was lucky enough to find a stylistic twin to compare it to for my paper at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website.
The top fan was intended for a member of the royal family and is inscribed with a seal gifting it to the Emperor of China. Completely gold painted fans like this in China are a little unusual, but very beautiful.
Ivory Comb Featuring Eight Immortals
Late Qing Dynasty
China
(via chineseart)
Tang Wei Min
Tang Wei Min was born in 1971 in Yong Zhou, Hunan Province of China. In 1991, he graduated from the Art Department of Hunan Standard College, where he majored in oil painting. In 2001, Tang Wei Min was accepted into a graduate study program in the Painting Department in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.
Tang Wei Min’s “Girl with Fan” was honored with second prize during the exhibition organized for the prestigious “Charles B. Wang” scholarship. This acclaimed painting was selected for the May 2001 issue of “Chinese Oil Painting” and now resides in a private collection. An additional work titled “Peeping” was shown at the Present-day Oil Painting Exhibition in Hunan Province, China. In 2003, Tang Wei Min was honored with his work being purchased and exhibited by The Beijing Museum of Fine Art. A small group of exclusive galleries in the United States and China represent his works. [Lotton Gallery]
(via beyondvictoriana)
China and Japan share in the tradition where homosexuality was present until a relatively late period until they came into contact with the Western world. Just a note, this post refers to homosexual men for the most part as in many cases, lesbianism didn’t have the same “cultural importance” in that time as homosexuality in men. So… sorry? But there is a rather famous instance of lesbianism which will be addressed a bit later in the post.
For China, that would be the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) and for Japan it would be between the Edo period (1603-1868) and the Meiji period (1868-1912). In some cases, people will list Western culture as encroaching into Japan as early as the Muromachi period (1337-1573) which is famous for the Warring States era of Japan.
Homosexuality in China used to be a fairly regular thing. In terms of its tradition, it was more or less like the cases seen in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Japan (Ancient and Feudal; basically until Western influences entered Japan).
The terminology remains somewhat the same whether it’s talking about homosexuality in Greece or China or Japan; usually being related to pederasty. Pederasty is basically, older wiser man meets younger more beautiful man. Pederasty existed typically in cultures where there is a hierarchical institution so for China, it was often the court and nobility but for Japan, it became more common in the theater troupes or the military.
This post is going to be fairly long.
Gold Head from the Oxus Treasure
5th-4th Centuries BC
Achaemenid Persian
This head is part of the Oxus treasure, the most important collection of gold and silver to have survived from the Achaemenid period. The treasure was found on the banks of the River Oxus and probably comes from a temple there. Most of the treasure dates from the fifth or fourth centuries BC, and many of the items are representative of what is described as Achaemenid court style, found throughout the empire and considered typical of the period. This head, though, is rather different, and may be of local manufacture.
The head is made of beaten gold and shows a beardless youth with pierced ears. It may have been part of a statue, perhaps in another material such as wood.
(Source: The British Museum)
Cylinder of Nebuchadnezzar II
Neo-Babylonian dynasty, about 604-562 BC
From Babylon, southern IraqThis clay cylinder was found in the ruins of the city of Babylon. The cuneiform text describes the three palaces which Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned 604-562 BC) built for himself in Babylon. The first palace was a rebuilding of the palace used by his father Nabopolassar (reigned 625-605 BC), which Nebuchadnezzar says had become dilapidated. When he had finished, he decided that it was not grand enough, so he built himself a new palace on the northern edge of Babylon. This palace had a blue parapet and was surrounded by massive fortification walls.
Later Nebuchadnezzar erected new city walls around the east side of Babylon, and built himself a third palace next to the River Euphrates. This is known today as his ‘summer’ palace, as it had ventilation shafts of a type still used today for cooling houses in the Near East. All three palaces were built of baked brick and bitumen, with roofs and doors constructed from fine imported timbers, cedar, cypress and fir.
Cylinders of this type were buried in the corners of all large buildings by Nebuchadnezzar and his successors. They were meant to be found and read by future kings whenever the buildings had to be repaired.
(Source: The British Museum)
Once a woodcarver, Chinese artist Wen Fuliang lives in Shaanxi province where he transforms chicken, goose, and duck eggshells into incredible (and incredibly fragile) works of art.
Wen Fuliang has practiced the delicate art of eggshell carving for over ten years. The work is done “using a fine diamond bit on an electric rotary tool. The artist sketches a design on the shell, which has been carefully emptied of the yolk and egg white with a syringe. They must then gently but securely hold the egg shell in one hand, the rotary tool in the other and slowly carve away the design in an incredibly time-consuming and skillful process.”
[via Neatorama and Dailymail.co.uk]
Stone relief of a slinger from the palace of King Kapara
Mid 10th Century BC
North East Syria
Aramaean Culture
This relief of a sling thrower comes from the Aramaean city of Guzana (modern Tell Halaf, Old Testament Gozan). The site was excavated between 1911 and 1921 by Max von Oppenheim. The relief was one of 187 that originally decorated the base of the south wall of the palace of King Kapara. It is carved in black basalt. In the original arrangement black reliefs alternated with reliefs made of red-ochre tinted limestone.
Some time around 1200 BC the Near East entered a period of major political change. The Hittite Empire, which had dominated eastern Anatolia and north Syria, disappeared, and the kingdom of Assyria lost control of much of upper Mesopotamia. At this time, Assyrian texts mention Aramaeans as hostile bands of marauders. By 1000 BC, however, Aramaeans had seized power and a number of small states developed. Guzana was the capital of the Aramaean state of Bit Bahiani. It grew rich by controlling important trade routes as well as through the agricultural wealth of the region.
Alongside these Aramaean states were Neo-Hittite states, such as Carchemish, where similar forms of decoration have been discovered - an example is the basalt stela also in The British Museum. The tradition was adopted by the Assyrians who decorated the interior of their mud-brick palaces with large alabaster relief panels.
By the ninth century BC, Guzana had been absorbed into the empire of the re-emerging power of Assyria.
(Source: The British Museum)
