Buddha, probably Amitabha,
Tang dynasty (618-907), early 7 century
In the museum, I saw a lot of sculpture of Buddha they were fascinating and beautiful. Among them, sculpture of Buddha with missing both hands was eye catching. It was different from other sculptures and it was from Tang dynasty. According to the description on the side of sculpture, it is the meditation position of Buddha. Amitabha means infinite light or knowledge Buddha gained through the mediation.
Stele With the Bodhisattvas,Tang dynasty(618-907)
I saw a huge limestone with figures Buddha. The limestone represents devotion of people in Buddhism in that time period.
Mirror back, Tang dynasty (618–906), 8th century
When I saw this piece, I was so confused with a lot of questions. Then I read the description on the side of this piece of art. I found it is called mirror back. It is made up of silver. It reminds me Achilles shield in Iliad as it is also beautifully crafted but with birds, animals, and flowery patterns.
Astor Court
The most beautiful, traditional Chinese garden. It represents Chinese cultural and architectural value with the importance of rock and bamboo. It is not from Tang dynasty, but this is most beautiful things that I found in the museum.
Finally, I have realized the trip to metropolitan museum is worthy. Now I understand, why professor want us to visit museum. I have discovered difference between looking in internet and being there. I was able to observed myself the great beauty and art of work of Chinese culture. It help to explored more knowledge of that time period and their social and culture value. Each pieces I saw in the museum emphasized relation of human to the nature and religion in tang dynasty. This week we are going to read about the poems of Tu Fu as the tang period was “civilization or the golden age of literature” (2).
Works cited:
1.“Tang dynasty.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. April 8, 2010. Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia. Online.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Dynasty>
2.“Poems of Tang Dynasty, poests in Tang, History of Ancient China.” History of China. 2007. http://www.history-of-china.com › Tang Dynasties
I saw a lot of sculpture of Buddha hand missing too. I believe it is due to the the material they used, cannot handle the weight of the hands unlike the greek ones.
ReplyDeleteYi, I believe it is also the intricate ways in which they formed the hand in their poses -- and that makes it more vulnerable to damage and erosion.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t like Tu Fu because most of the poetries that he wrote were very sad. I still remember that when I was small, my teacher asked us to memorize 300 “Tang poetry”. Some of Tu Fu’s works were collected in 300 “Tang poetry”. It was very painful to memorize his poetries in Chinese because poetry may only have 16 words but each word talked about a story. However, when these poetries transferred to English; how easily to understand what he tried to say.
ReplyDelete