Baoqin Qu
Art 114
Professor: Meiqin Wang
10/27/2014
Asian Art Contextual Analysis As we all know, art is a media to express opinions and emotion from people. It can be materially, mentally or beauty appreciation. During our life, arts are everywhere. In my opinion, Asian art is full of secrecy and wonderful. On Tuesday, I went to USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena. The USC Pacific Asia Museum’s collections that includes representative examples of art from Asia and the Pacific Islands, spanning more than 4000 years of human creativity. In those collections, it included Chinese ceramics, Japanese woodblock prints, and Buddhist art and so on. The museum layout is the traditional Asian culture style. There is a big courtyard garden in the central and there are lots of different exhibition buildings distributed all around the courtyard garden. The first one is the focus gallery after people entrance the reception. There are lots of different style Asian arts. For example, there is one interesting thing in it when I enter the gallery. The Head of Bodhistattva is a rare example of a surviving wooden Buddhist sculpture. This art is just a head with a very luxury and beautiful crown. It made in the Song Dynasty of China during 960-1279. The material made in wood and pigment. Actually, the Head of Bodhistattva’s background is that the Buddha attained enlightenment and left the physical world, bodhisattvas, who are also enlightened, postpone their own Buddhahood in order to assist sentient beings to achieve enlightenment and salvation. “An elaborate headdress with a central seated Buddha figure is a common attribute of bodhisattvas. Due to their compassionate quality, bodhisattvas became popular among devotees and were often produced as part of a grouping around a Buddha or as a central figure to worship” (Web). The plentiful supply of wood in many parts of Asia led to its use a primary material of art. Secondly, there is one amazing art called Seated Bodhisattva Guanyin. It was in the early 20th century was a dynamic period in jade production in China. It was in late Qing Dynasty from 1644-1911. As we all know, jade has been regarded with special reverence b many cultures. In China, jade is the fairest of stones. It is endowed with five virtues. In Chinese culture, jade has lots of meaning during life. Jade as a material made by people for different accessories. For example, jade carvings means auspicious and lucky. Early jade objects were discovered at burial sites of Neolithic China (C. 5000-2000 BCE), likely used to protect the bodies of the deceased. In addition to mortuary jades, Chinese artisans carved jades for use in rituals and as ornaments. It requires laborious abrasive grinding using harder stones such as quartz. Thirdly, the Amida Buddha made by wood and lacquer in Japan Edo period (1600-1868). Over the centuries since the death of the Buddha, different schools of Buddhism developed, varying in the interpretations of his teachings and expanding rituals and pantheons. For example, Pure Land Budhism which emphasizes the idea of paradise teaches that one can attain enlightenment and enter the Western Paradise by chanting Amida Buddha, or the Buddha of the western Paradise. It gained strong support in East Asia due to its openness and acceptance of all. As we all know, in Japan, Pure Land Buddhism inspired some of the most beautiful and elegant Buddhist art, as seen in this statue. Fourthly, there is a beautiful scroll painting called Thangka of a Seated Bodhisattva. The bodhisattva is depicted seated on a lotus flanked by compassionate bodhisattvas and scenes from the jataka, tales of the previous lives of the Buddha. This thangka was brought out of Tibet by members of the
