Buddhist Art and Architecture

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonya S. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Buddhist Art ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
East And Southeast Asia ◽  
Production Techniques ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Art And Architecture

The art and architecture of Buddhism has shaped the physical and social landscape of Asia for more than two millennia. Images of the Buddha and other Buddhist deities, alongside the physical structures built to enshrine them, are found in practically all corners of the continent, where the religion has enjoyed widespread dissemination. India boasts some of the earliest extant works dating from the 3rd century bce, whereas new images and monuments continue to be made today in many countries in East and Southeast Asia as well as in North America and Europe. Spanning across diverse cultures, Buddhist material culture encompasses a wide range of object types, materials, and settings. Yet the Buddha represented in anthropomorphic form and the stupa that preserves his presence through either bodily relics or symbolic objects remain the most enduring forms through time and space. Their remarkable longevity underscores the tremendous flexibility inherent in Buddhist teaching and iconography, which allows local communities to adapt and reconstitute them for new meanings. Such processes of localization can be understood through close analysis of changes in style, materials, production techniques, and context. The ubiquity of Buddhist art and architecture across the globe is made possible chiefly by a fundamental belief in religious merits, a concept that encourages believers to do good in order to accumulate positive karma for spiritual advancement. One of the most common forms of action is to give alms and other material objects to the monastic community as well as make offerings to the Buddha, thereby giving rise to active patronage of image-making and scripture production.

Buddhist Art and Architecture in Tibet

Buddhism ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gray
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Buddhist Art ◽  
Tibetan Diaspora ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Tremendous Amount ◽  
Chinese Scholars ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Art And Architecture

Fifty years ago, Tibetan art and architecture were fields in an early stage of development in the West. Early Western knowledge of Tibetan art and architecture was largely due to the pioneering work of early 20th-century scholars such as Giuseppe Tucci, Joseph Hackin, and Alice Getty. These fields have developed significantly over the past few decades, for multiple reasons. These reasons include general growth in interest in Tibetan culture and religion following the Chinese occupation of Tibet, and in the Tibetan diaspora, from the 1950s onward. The Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s in China led to the destruction of a tremendous amount of Tibetan art and architecture, and to the displacement within China of many works of Tibetan art that were not destroyed. However, the opening of China to the outside world in the post-Mao era led to the growing availability of Tibetan art on international art markets and gave foreign scholars access to surviving architectural monuments. This has led to a rapid growth in the understanding of Tibetan art history and stylistics. This work has been undertaken by a wide range of scholars, from North America and Europe, as well as Japan and India. More recently, there has also been considerable growth in scholarship within China by Tibetan and Han Chinese scholars.

Buddhist Art and Architecture in Mongolia

Buddhism ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Charleux
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Buddhist Art ◽  
Religious Persecution ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Art History Survey ◽  
Mongol Empire ◽  
History Survey ◽  
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region ◽  
Art And Architecture

Mongolian Buddhist art and architecture were largely unknown in Western academic literature before the opening of Mongolia and Russia in 1990 and of China in the 1980s, followed by the organization of exhibitions of their arts abroad. This article maps out major resources on Mongolian Buddhist art and architecture, here understood as the art and architecture of the Mongolian populations, who live not only in Mongolia (known as “Outer Mongolia” before 1911, also referred to as Northern, or Khalkha Mongolia) itself but also in China (mostly in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, or southern Mongolia) and in Russia (Republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia). The study of Mongolian Buddhist art and architecture is still at an incipient stage and reflects the compartmentalization between the Mongols of China and those of Mongolia and Russia, though exchanges between researchers are developing. Comparatively few artifacts have survived the migrations, nomadizations, and above all the destructions after the fall of the Mongol empire in the late 14th century and the religious persecution and destruction of material culture of the 20th-century Communist regimes of Russia, Mongolia (1936–1938), and China (during the Cultural Revolution, 1966–1976). Old photographs and textual descriptions of buildings and artifacts are therefore important to complement our knowledge of this field. Mongolian culture has been qualified as “osmotic,” receiving, borrowing, absorbing, and acculturating foreign influences with a great receptivity. But Mongols did not borrow randomly: they were eclectic in their choices, according to their own cultural norms and aspirations. This is obvious when dealing with art and architecture, where borrowings are sometimes so well integrated that they were forgotten, and nationalists now claim Mongols are themselves at the origin of some forms and motifs. Since the 1990s, the interest for the Mongolian material heritage led to the development of projects of cooperation between Mongolia and foreign partners in the fields of archeology, art history, survey and restoration of monasteries, and creation of new museums. The volume of publications, especially of catalogues of private and public collections of Mongolian art have recently increased, but large collections such as those kept in Russia have not been published yet, and many Buddhist statues and paintings still labeled as “Sino-Tibetan” in Western museums should probably be attributed to Mongolia.

scholarly journals ‘A well-dressed actress’: Exploring the Theatrical Wardrobe of Ellen Terry

Costume ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Isaac
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Financial Independence ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Theatrical Performances ◽  
Degree Of Control ◽  
Late Nineteenth

A leading actress of the late nineteenth century, Dame Ellen Terry (1847–1928) exercised an unusual degree of control over her theatre costumes and played an active role in the design and creation of these garments. Drawing upon evidence gathered from a wide range of material culture sources, most notably her surviving costumes, this article considers the theatrical, historical, social and artistic context which shaped Terry's theatrical performances and stage dress. Terry's theatre costumes also reflected her personal views on dress, both on and off the stage. Particular attention will therefore be paid to the changes which occurred in Terry's stage dress as her increasing fame and financial independence enabled her to achieve greater control over the design and, importantly, the designers, of her theatre costumes. Through a close analysis of key pieces from Terry's stage wardrobe, this article will draw attention to the important part her theatre costumes played in a wider process of self-fashioning in which Terry used her dress, both on and off the stage, to establish her status as an ‘Icon of Aestheticism’ and secure her enduring legacy as an actress who understood the ‘art’ of theatre.

Buddhist Art and Architecture in Japan

Buddhism ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Blair
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social History ◽  
Art History ◽  
English Language ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Buddhist Art ◽  
International Exhibitions ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Art And Architecture

When Buddhism entered Japan in the sixth century, its sculpture, painting, architecture, and texts—and the sophisticated technologies used to produce them—played a major role in attracting new adherents. These materials came to be viewed as “art” only with Japan’s participation in international exhibitions and the domestic development of museums during the 19th century. Today it is primarily art historians who study Buddhist art and architecture, but as buddhologists take an interest in social history and material culture, cross- and inter-disciplinary research is becoming more common. Disciplinary stereotypes do persist, however. They would have it that art historians are preoccupied with formalism, while buddhologists are so sunk in a textual mindset that they are unable to assess material objects critically. The Japanese-language literature on Buddhist art and architecture is voluminous, and is not covered in any significant detail here. Non-art historians should also understand that exhibition catalogs have been and continue to be a major publishing genre in both Japanese- and English-language art history. Catalogs do have their limitations, but they can be tremendously useful and anyone interested in a specific topic would do well to search out relevant exhibition materials. Happily for those who do not read Japanese, since the 1990s it has become common practice for Japanese catalogs to include English captions and even translations and synopses of essays.

Basque gastronomic tourism: Creating value for Euskara through the materiality of language and drink

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerri N. Lesh
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Basque Country ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Linguistic Identity ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Culinary Tourism ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Social Landscape

AbstractThis article examines the recent growth of culinary tourism in the Basque Country (Hegoalde or Southern Basque Country), and how its effects have shaped the use of Euskara (the Basque language) and multilingual practices through concepts of materiality. Derived from my research, which looks at how Euskara is used to promote gastronomic products, this analysis relies upon the two concepts of geosemiotics and language materiality to reveal how materiality influences value and language use in touristic settings. We can analyze language as it is materially placed in the world by studying the physical substances on which an inscription is made. This materiality also exists as part of a stratigraphy of non-neutral forms that include a wide range of presentations that influence how we interact with text, while also providing a lens through which consumption and material culture studies emerge. Derived from interviews, the examination of beverage labels, and observations of the linguistic landscape, the findings of this research illustrate how Euskara is used – despite some producers’ reluctance – alongside more dominant languages as culinary tourism increases. In doing so, it highlights emergent opposing reactions to tourism that express concern for the changing social, economic, linguistic, and political environment. Through the examples illustrated, the materiality of Euskara can increase the value of both the language and marketed products. However, the added or even decreased value of a language is contingent on the physical and social landscape in which gastronomy is promoted. By developing ideas of how and where language materiality, commodification, and value are produced, advocates of minoritized languages such as Euskara can better strategize the promotion of their gastronomic and tourist sectors without losing the cultural and linguistic identity that contributes to these sectors’ value.

Short Films from a Small Nation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Claire Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Public Information ◽  
Industrial Process ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Documentary Films ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Short Films ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Art And Architecture

The first book-length study in English of a national corpus of state-sponsored informational film, this book traces how Danish shorts on topics including social welfare, industry, art and architecture were commissioned, funded, produced and reviewed from the inter-war period to the 1960s. For three decades, state-sponsored short filmmaking educated Danish citizens, promoted Denmark to the world, and shaped the careers of renowned directors like Carl Th. Dreyer. Examining the life cycle of a representative selection of films, and discussing their preservation and mediation in the digital age, this book presents a detailed case study of how informational cinema is shaped by, and indeed shapes, its cultural, political and technological contexts.The book combines close textual analysis of a broad range of films with detailed accounts of their commissioning, production, distribution and reception in Denmark and abroad, drawing on Actor-Network Theory to emphasise the role of a wide range of entities in these processes. It considers a broad range of genres and sub-genres, including industrial process films, public information films, art films, the city symphony, the essay film, and many more. It also maps international networks of informational and documentary films in the post-war period, and explores the role of informational film in Danish cultural and political history.

Revolution Rekindled

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Polly Jones
Keyword(s):  
Historical Novels ◽  
Soviet Culture ◽  
Complex Processes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Soviet Literature ◽  
Late Socialism ◽  
Revolutionary History ◽  
Gorbachev Era ◽  
Depth Interviews

A major late Soviet initiative, the ‘Fiery Revolutionaries’ (Plamennye revoliutsionery) series, was launched to rekindle popular enthusiasm for the revolution, eventually giving rise to over 150 biographies and historical novels authored by many key post-Stalinist writers. What new meanings did revolution take on as it was reimagined by writers including dissidents, leading historians, and popular historical novelists? How did their millions of readers engage with these highly varied texts? To what extent does this Brezhnev-era publishing phenomenon challenge the notion of late socialism as a time of ‘stagnation’, and how does it confirm it? Through exploring the complex processes of writing, editing, censorship, and reading of late Soviet literature, Revolution Rekindled highlights the dynamic negotiations that continued within Soviet culture well past the apparent turning point of 1968 through to the late Gorbachev era. It also complicates the opposition between ‘official’ and underground post-Stalinist culture by showing how Soviet writers and readers engaged with both, as they sought answers to key questions of revolutionary history, ethics, and ideology: it thus reveals the enormous breadth and vitality of the ‘historical turn’ amongst the late Soviet population. Revolution Rekindled is the first archival, oral history, and literary study of this unique late socialist publishing experiment, from its beginnings in the early 1960s to its collapse in the early 1990s. It draws on a wide range of previously untapped archives, uses in-depth interviews with Brezhnev-era writers, editors, and publishers, and assesses the generic and stylistic innovations within the series’ biographies and novels.

scholarly journals Early Balkan Metallurgy: Origins, Evolution and Society, 6200–3700 BC

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miljana Radivojević ◽  
Benjamin W. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Metal Production ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Tin Bronze ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Production Distribution ◽  
Societal Context ◽  
Copper Gold ◽  
Production Techniques ◽  
Early Metallurgy

AbstractThis paper analyses and re-evaluates current explanations and interpretations of the origins, development and societal context of metallurgy in the Balkans (c. 6200–3700 BC). The early metallurgy in this region encompasses the production, distribution and consumption of copper, gold, tin bronze, lead and silver. The paper draws upon a wide range of existing archaeometallurgical and archaeological data, the diversity and depth of which make the Balkans one of the most intensively investigated of all early metallurgical heartlands across the world. We focus specifically on the ongoing debates relating to (1) the independent invention and innovation of different metals and metal production techniques; (2) the analysis and interpretation of early metallurgical production cores and peripheries, and their collapses; and (3) the relationships between metals, metallurgy and society. We argue that metal production in the Balkans throughout this period reflects changes in the organisation of communities and their patterns of cooperation, rather than being the fundamental basis for the emergence of elites in an increasingly hierarchical society.

scholarly journals Ontology in Neolithic Britain and Ireland: Beyond Animism

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Chris Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Ontological Difference ◽  
Wide Range

A combination of new animism and new materialism has influenced recent interpretations of the Neolithic archaeology of Britain and Ireland, including decorative and figurative productions often referred to as ‘art’. This article critiques the appeal to animism in some of this work and considers four alternative ways to address the critique. First it considers contextualizing animism by discussing Descola’s identification of four kinds of ontologies—animism, totemism, analogism and naturalism–outlining examples of practices and material culture involved in each. After examining the effect of applying these to the Neolithic archaeology of Britain and Ireland, it then considers identifying Neolithic practices which seem at odds with animism without boxing these as indicative of other categories of ontology. After noting the wide range of Indigenous ontologies such models attempt to characterize, the article advocates an emphasis on ontological difference and attends to ontological diversity within the Neolithic.

Le fonti, i metodi e le narrazioni della storia della videoarte in Italia negli anni Settanta

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Parola
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Video Art ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
Selection For ◽  
The Many ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
Selection Of

This essay derives from the primary need to make order between direct and indirect sources available for the reconstruction of the history of video art in Italy in the seventies. In fact, during the researches for the Ph.D. thesis it became clear that in most cases it is difficult to define, in terms of facts, which of the different historiographies should be taken into consideration to deepen the study of video art in Italy. Beyond legitimate differences of perspectives and methods, historiographical narratives all share similar issues and narrative structure. The first intention of the essay is, therefore, to compare the different historiographic narratives on Italian video art of the seventies, verifying their genealogy, the sources used and the accuracy of the narrated facts. For the selection of the corpus, it was decided to analyze in particular monographic volumes dealing with the history of the origins of video art in Italy. The aim was, in fact, to get a wide range of types of "narrations", as in the case of contemporary art and architecture magazines, which are examined in the second part of the essay. After the selection, for an analytical and comparative study of the various historiography, the essay focuses only on the Terza Biennale Internazionale della Giovane Pittura. Gennaio ’70. Comportamenti, oggetti e mediazioni (Third International Biennial of Young Painting. January '70. Behaviors, Objects and Mediations, 1970, Bologna), the exhibition which - after Lucio Fontana's pioneering experiments - is said to be the first sign of the arrival of videotape in Italy (called at the time videorecording), curated by Renato Barilli, Tommaso Trini, Andrea Emiliani and Maurizio Calvesi. The narration given so far of this exhibition appeared more mythological than historical and could be compared structurally to that of the many numerous beginnings that historiographyies on international video art identify as ‘first’ and ‘generative’. In the first part of the essay the 'facts' related to Gennaio ’70, as narrated by historiography on video art, are compared. In the second part the survey is carried out through some of the direct sources identified during the research, with the aim of answering to questions raised by the comparison between historiographies. Concluding, it is important to underline that the tapes containing the videos transmitted have not been found and seem to have disappeared since the ending of the exhibition. Nevertheless, the deepening of the works and documentation transmitted during the exhibition is possible thanks to other types of sources which give us many valuable information regarding video techniques and practices at the beginning of 1970 in Italy.

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