ARTH 109 Final

Glass cup with string pattern (blue)

• Western Han Dynasty

• represents Maritime Silk Road

• Guanxi, Tomb no. 12

• Imported because it uses European recipe for glasses (silicia, lime)

  • Indigenous chinese glassware is made with lead barium

Borobudur

• Java, Indonesia

• Unique buddhist monument 

• Worlds biggest temple

• 9 stack platforms, central dome

• Relief painting panels and buddha statues- stories of historical buddhas previous and current life, and other buddhist stories

• 9th century by Sailendra Dynasty, little known about them today

Buckle Ornament (Dian)

• Yunnan province, Tomb no. 10 Shizhaishan (8th century) (Dian)

• Bronze

• Similar animals combat scene motif (animal style) as western Steppe ppl 

• Theory that ancestors from Dian culture are from the north (Steppe region)

  • Yuezhi forced to move by Xiongnnu→ Yuezhi forced Saka to move south to where Dian were

• compare with Siberian belt buckle (on right)- ainmal combat scene

Bronze Drum with Boat Pattern

• Dian Kingdom

• Patterns that form concentric circle around a star, birds flying around the star

• On the side, people are showing daily life/rituals

• Ppl on a boat with decorative hats (priests), doing sacrificial ritual

  • Indicates that water is very important to Dian culture

Dong Son Bronze Drum

• Vietnam, also found in Indonesia and other SE asian cultures

• Also a type of bronze drum, similar to Dian culture

  • Similar patterns show how SW China and SE asia were culturally similar

Messenger Paiza/Gerege in Papka script

• Given a paiza tablet whenever you travel on a journey on mongol postal route (based on chinese paiz, gerege = that which bears witness)

• Granted the ability to requisition resources and right to receive room, board, fresh horses, and an escort

• Only to be used on Mongol postal-road system

• Mongol emperors, empresses, princess able to issue paiza (silver hard to recreate)

• This one was found in china area (Great Khan)

  • Others found in Golden Horde

    • These had different designs and material, but served the same purpose

  • Also one in il-Khanate

• Language different from Mongol script, it was called Papka

  • It was a written language invented by a tibetan monk

  • Tibetan buddhism was state religion, so many tibetan monks served along emperors

  • Papka, looks like tibetan but also has components of uyger-based Mongolian and Chinese

    • Universal language bc it combines all these languages (tibetan, uyger based mongolian, chinese)

• Saint Jerome (italy)

  • Looks similar to papka script, square block language, very different from other european languages

• Giottto di Bodone (italy)

  • Lining of her dress around her head had papka script

• Represents how far writing from mongols can travel

Nasij w/ Medallion of winged lions and griffins

• mongol empire, 13th century, Il Khanate (central asia)

• Nasij (persian word for cloth)

  • Base layer weave, on top they would use real gold thread (plain weave vs lampas weave)

    • Gold thread- twisted and flattened

      • Flattened: Gold leaf glued on leather

      • Twisted: wrap the gold thread around string of silk (used here)

        • This was in mongol yuan i think

  • produced in Il-khanate and great khan

• Panni-tartarici- latin for tartar cloth (tartar=asia) used in europe to refer to gold-woven clothes produced in mongol empire

  • Annunciation with st Maximus and St. Ansanus: Simone Martini (Siena, Italy)- robes had nasij textile/panni-tartarici 

  • Manye examples across europe

Acala

• Tangut, khara-khoto 13th century

• Kesi tapestry

  • Type of tapestry

  • Desired material in europe was wool

    • In asia, kesi used silk

  • Differences between tapestry/weaving and embroidery

    • Background and motif at the same time, if you flip it over it looks exactly the same (weaving)

    • Have background first, then weaving the motif, looks different on front and back and you can see the back stitching  (embroidery)

  • Sogdian or uygher likely invented kesi technique

• Tanguts made this a esoteric buddhism pieces, not just a textile technique

• Tanguts like to use different mediums to create same deity, innovative ppl

• 3 images- know which is which

Vajrabhaiarava Mandala

• Mongol Yuan

• Kesi tapestry

• Mongol yuan kesi tapestry

• Large

• Mandala- central deity, (Yamantaka=vajrabhairava, “destoryer of death”, esoteric wrathful deity)

  • Many heads and arms

  • Stepping on human and animal bodies

  • Smaller deities around him are his attendants, others are performing rituals

  • Donors: two couples in the bottom right and left corners

    • Male: Emperor tuq-Temur and Prince Qoshila

      • Tuq became emperor first 1238, Qoshila declared himself the emperor 1239, 4 days later Qosila died (theory that tuq killed him), tuq reascended the throne in 1239, this was helpful to know when the kesi tapestry was created (likely after 1239 because kesi is time-consuming)

• 2 other example of the deity

Qianlong Emperor as Manjushri-Chakravartin

• Qing Dynasty, 18th century

• Refuge field- lotus stems from centered buddha (tree-like arrangment) (in both paintings)

  • Genre of Tibetan painting that depicts all the important deities and historical masters of a particular Buddhist tradition in a tree-like arrangement. It shows an assembly of teachers and deities as they should be imagined when a meditator mentally takes refuge inthem

• Emperor commissioned this and centered himself at the center of the refuge painting, and equates himself to:

  • Sword: bodhisattva of wisdom

  • Golden wheel: buddhist king

• Face is painted by castiglione different from other buddhist art piece we would expect

• Compared to: Tibetan painting, follows tibetan buddhist tradition