Vaishravana (Bishamonten), Guardian King of the North
Artist not known
Edo Period (1615-1868), Japan
1615-1700
Gold and colored paint on lacquered wood statue with ornate and intricate carving.
Asian Art Museum, Civic Center, San Francisco
Bishamonten stands proud with a foot firmly stepped upon a demon; In his left hand he holds a miniature stupa and in his right a golden spear pointed up towards the sky. This piece has an ethereal feel, it is handsomely ornate and divinely crafted. The rich attention to detail is both exquisite and represents a fundamental design aspect of Japanese art and culture. His face holds a menacing glance as his eyes look downward. When you look into his eyes they appear so fierce its as if he is judging your soul. His arms are raised in battle stance and the posing causes the art to feel as if it were in motion and alive. He wears multiple layers of celestial-like robes and sashes colored in varying hues of blue. Atop his robes is a set of heavy armor that is colored red, yellow, and dark blue. He is depicted as otherworldly, while his bodily proportions are realistic his other features are not based in reality. For instance, his eyes have no pupils and he is facing off against a demon. The pedestal of the statue is carved into organic free forms, below the demon, which resemble clouds. These feelings of divination, levitation, and celestial presence gives the art a god-like quality. It is a statue representation of the Buddhist god, Bishamonten (Guardian King of the North), of wealth, victory, and good fortune. In his right hand he holds a stupa which symbolizes the knowledge of Buddhism and the achievement of enlightenment. The spear he holds as well as the position in which he holds it in show...
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...one. Even though his pose is off balance it remains very orderly. The top of his head lines up perfectly with his facial features, navel, and the ground confirming the presence of an axis mundi. This gives it a divine quality because organic forms do not achieve such perfection. It is a three dimensional freestanding sculpture and has a complex shape, especially when silhouetted. The motifs and aesthetics of this piece are heavily stylized. The posing of this sculpture has very active movement and carries a sense of fluidity and control. The warrior god appears powerful, restrained, and delicate all at the same time. This portrayal delivers appealing qualities of Buddhist enlightenment, the ultimate level of self-restraint over physical and mental prowesses.
The sculpture has been crafted by being delicately carved out of wood. This gives it a natural aesthetic
The artist says, "I first used the horse images as a metaphorical substitute for myself-it was a way of doing a self-portrait one step removed from the specificity of Deborah Butterfield". Sculpturing is all about expression, as the image form has depth as well as width and height; three-dimensional display. Deborah's innovative and intellectual ideas are seen in the horse with its pose and energy; alert and ready to react to whatever comes its way. The form is organized to create the image; each branch represents a part of the horse's physique. It appears as though the horse is made of tree branches and twigs, however, Deborah actually does use branch material for the horse, but then completes the sculpture by casting each element in bronze; creating this life size beast.
Guanyin (Bodhisattva) (See Fig. 1 in Appendix) is an artefact, with Object Number of 2400, in the Honolulu Museum of Art. The medium, or material, of this sculpture of Guanyin is painted wood, and traces of pigment can still be seen on the sculpture. Its height is approximately 67 inches, or 170.2 centimeters. The origin of this sculpture is China, Northern Song (960-1126) or Tangut Xia (1038-1227). According to the museum, this sculptural art piece was purchased, or acquired, in 1927 from a renowned collection of Matsukata Kojiro, who passed away in 1950.
The Statue of a kouros represents a Greek male. With one foot forward, the statue at the same time, represents movement and is able to stand on it own. This also gives the over life size figure, visible weight. In this early figure, geometric forms seem to predominate, and anatomical details, such as the chest muscles and pelvic arch, are presented with somewhat of exaggerated lines. Although the exaggerated lines show where these muscles belong, the detail is still missing. Looking up and down this nude body, at this miss proportioned and lacking of detail body, the hair is what grabs my attention. The hair is carved with detail not noticeable in the rest of the body. As well, although the fists are clinched and still bonded to the body, the legs and elbows are separated. The ability to move around and inspect the statue makes a big difference than if it was up against a wall, or just looking at its picture. The legs, which support the weight of the statue, have a visible strength which is seen in the knees. The head is what carried the most detail, the ears although to far back, are intricately designed. It is the ability to walk around the entire statue that allows me to see the different aspects and places where attention to detail was placed. However, he does not expand into three dimensional space; he has a closed-off, column-like appearance
I learned about many significant artwork and artist in this class. This class provided me with a better understanding of the history of the world Art, but also helped me understand the development of art style. However, among all of these precious pieces of artwork, there are two special ones that caught my attention: The Chinese Qin Terracotta Warriors and The Haniwa. Each of them represents the artist’s stylistic characteristics and cultural context. Although they represented different art of rulers, historical values, and scenes, there were visible similarities.
Walking into the Hall of the Buddhas, there was a sense of peace and guidance lingering inside me. The seated Bodhisattva, of the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534), CA.480, from the Yungang, Cave xv, Shani Province, made of sandstone, guarded the entrance. At first, I thought it was a time to be disciplined, but the transcending smile from the statue was a delicate fixed gesture that offered a feeling of welcome. It was not a place to confess your wrongdoings; neither was it a place for me to say, “Buddha I have sinned.” It was a room to purify the mind, the mind that we take for granted without giving it harmony. There was a large mural decorating the main wall called “The Paradise of Bhaishajyaguru”(916-1125). I sat down wandering if the artist of the portrait knew that his work would one day be shared on this side of the world, in my time. Much like Jesus Christ and his followers, the mural is a painting of healers and saviors. It was a large figure of the Buddha of medicine, (Bhaishajyaquru) surrounded by followers of Bodhisattvas, Avalokiteshvara, and Mahosthamaprapta with twelve guardian generals who have pledged to disseminate the Buddha’s teaching (Tradition of Liao 916-1125, Metropolitan Museum wall plaque).
The symbol of Jizo Bodhisattva signifies the savior of suffering and it was a patron of lost children. He rescues beings from Hell and relieves their suffering. Jizo Bodhisattva was an important figure to Japans ethos, and perhaps one of the most beloved figures in Buddhism. The figure is represented cartoon-like in a way that it is not frightening especially for children. The jewel represented in the statue bestows consecrations on those who suffer, grants aspirations, appeases desire, and brings an understanding of the Dharma.
This is an extremely high relief sculpture made of limestone. It is to be viewed from a frontal standpoint. It however does have a potential for movement. There seems to be a great deal going on in such a close space. It is very crowded, but dramatic. The figures are intertwining with each other all at once even though there are different things happening. It reminds me of a play with scenes. You can actually step in to it and feel as though you are a part of what is happening because of all the different directions each individual is facing.
Crooked Beak of Heaven Mask is a big bird-figure mask from late nineteenth century made by Kwakwaka’wakw tribe. Black is a broad color over the entire mask. Red and white are used partially around its eyes, mouth, nose, and beak. Its beak and mouth are made to be opened, and this leads us to the important fact in both formal analysis and historical or cultural understanding: Transformation theme. Keeping that in mind, I would like to state formal analysis that I concluded from the artwork itself without connecting to cultural background. Then I would go further analysis relating artistic features to social, historical, and cultural background and figure out what this art meant to those people.
This piece is acrylic, oilstick, and spray paint on wood panel that is 186.1 centimeters in height and 125.1 centimeters in width. This piece features a human-like figure in the center that is mostly half red and half black. This figure has a gray head with one yellow eye and one light gray eye and above its head is a black halo. The background consists of patches of various colors such as light blue, black, dark red, light green, beige, turquoise, pink, and yellow. On the bottle left corner there is a figure drawn that looks like a fish and has a strip of mustard yellow painted through it. Also towards the bottom right of the artwork, there is some drawn on letters that almost look like words but are messily painted over with a desert sand color. This piece is my favorite because I find it aesthetically pleasing. There is a lot going on in this piece that makes looking at it genuinely interesting. The colors that Basquiat choses for the background go very well together and overall compliment the figure in the center. I like how incredibly expressive this piece is and it makes me want to buy a canvas and start painting that I desire. I also like how the human-like figure is drawn. One could see what looks like an outlined ribcage on the figure, which makes me believe that the head is actually a skull. Upon further research I learned that Basquiat was
words that help capture what is medieval art. The artists behind these pieces of artwork
It is speculated that this anti-iconic symbolism was done in order to comply with Gautama’s wish that his physical form not be depicted after his passing, but there are no found scriptures known to prove this statement. On the east gate is a continuous narrative scene called “The Great Departure,” where Gautama departs on his journey for enlightenment (Chien). He is represented as an umbrella, a royal symbol, when seated on his horse and as footprints, which shows his physical impact on the world, when he dis-mounts his horse. The Buddha is represented as an umbrella on a shrine on the Western gate. Buddha sculptures have evolved over time in order to fit the changing views of Buddhism. The earliest styles for Buddhist sculpture are from the ancient civilizations of Mathura and Gandhara started the iconic phase of depicting Buddha. A seated Buddha statue from Mathura resembles traditional Indian images of male nature deities, has fearless hand gestures, and is characterized by a cranial protuberance, which shows his greater understanding of all things. These seated statues constitute of broad shoulders, a swelled chest, firmly planted legs, a shaven head, a smiling round face, and drapery that clings to the form of the body while leaving the right shoulder bare (Britannica). Other characteristics include “the right arm raised in
In the poem “One Art” the thesis statement declared in the first stanza, on the first line as “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” also repeating it again in line 6 and 12. The statement is better interpreted as “The skill of losing is not hard to attain”. Bishop speaks in the poem as if she has successfully mastered the skill of losing. She also goes around in circles admitting that the art of losing is not hard to master as if that is what she is making herself believe is true. She is also helping the reader create a habit as the reader reads and repeats the refrain of “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” not to mention the line 4 where she tells the reader to make it a habit to, “Lose something every day”.
I chose this sculpture because I was intrigued by the position of the man and the centaur. I was able to witness that the centaur is trying to invade the personal space of the man. The sculpture showed me that there is a strong relationship between man and creature. The quality of the sculpture made me realize that animals play a big part of a human’s life and can be seen as threatening to humans. It was interesting to see that both the man and centaur were created to have almost of the same structures. This statue has a metallic brown and green, bronze tone and appeared undersized. It has a height of four and a half feet, and six inches. It has long, thin, legs with calf muscles, and bulging thighs. The sculpture evolved from Olympia, Greece. The man and centaur sculpture was created in 750 BCE during an orderly time period. The colors used for this sculpture, proved that it has a longer lasting mold for statues. On the left side of the sculpture, the man has a wrap on his head, that can symbolize, he is some form of a god. On the right side, the centaur has the same head piece as the man, but the body of a horse. It can be seen that the man and
This breaks all of our tradition in sculpture. On the one hand the simplification and distortion of body and limb seem extremely daring departures from the tradition which few do; on the other hand, this is reminiscent of the earliest sculpture ever produced, which is far from a perfect balance. Thus he has created a new form; that of pure laziness.
The “Sacred Tree,” (fig. 1) was originally positioned behind the king’s throne. The scene shows two genii, sometimes with birds’ heads and sometimes with men’s heads and the horned hats of gods. Each of the winged figures holds a bucket and reaches out with an oval object toward a stylized “tree.” The composition has been read as being based on bilateral symmetry, with the vertical stalk-like structure crowned by a palmette. A meticulous examination reveals that although balanced, it has many discrepancies on both sides that deviate from perfect mirror symmetry. Ashurnasirpal appears twice, shown from two sides, dressed in ceremonial robes and holding a mace connoting his authority. The figure of the king on the right makes an invocative gesture a god in a winged disk in the top center of the relief. Ashur, the national god or Shamash, the god of the sun and justice, may be identified as the god who confers the king divine right. On the left, the king holds a ring, an ancient Mesopotamian symbol of divine kingship, in one...