BGuthrie Photos: PA -- Philadelphia Museum of Art -- Asia

PA -- Philadelphia Museum of Art -- Asia:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. PMAASI_100711_002.JPG: Sasanian Hall for Damghan, Persia: In 1931, this Museum and The University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania cosponsored an archaeological expedition to the site of Damghan in Persia (present-day Iran). The excavations brought to light a right deposit of structural remains built during the Sasanian dynasty (226-641 CE). Among the structures uncovered was a hypostyle hall that led to a reception room. Using evidence from known Sasanian structures in other parts of Iran, the portal of this hall, with its great cylindrical columns and the arches they support, was re-erected here to serve as the monumental entrance to the Museum's collections of Asian art. Where decorative stucco elements were missing, reproductions were made from those salvaged. All of the stucco plaques seen here are characteristic of Sasanian decoration. Some show boars' heads in circles of dots; others, female heads in high relief; while others contain conventionalized leaf-floral squares. The drinking-stag plaques are unusual, however, as are the larger lions' heads in the round. The diamond-and-palmette pattern of the great column bases has been similarly used in other parts of Persia, while the treatment of the column capitals and the rope-leaf borders of the arches are wholly Sasanian in character. This portal was initially dated 241-272 CE, but later researches have led scholars to consider it mid-sixth century.
2. PMAASI_100711_036.JPG: Safavid Court from Isfahan, Persia: The striking series of Persian mosaics on view in this gallery were created during the Safavid dynasty (1501-1736). They are said to have come from the Sufi Muslim monastery that was located in the city of Isfahan, then the capital city of Persia (present-day Iran). The panels, with their alternating palmette and star motifs, are composed of myriad pieces of ceramic tile in which mirror-black, mingled with various shades of faun and umber, predominates. They are set into backgrounds of brilliant turquoise, a color for which sixteenth-century Persian tilemakers were renowned.
3. PMAASI_100711_047.JPG: Two Stamps (Chhapa) in the Form of Vishnu's Footprints (Vishnupada) Late 19th or early 20th century As part of their religious practice, devotees of Gaudiya Vaishnavism sometimes adorn themselves with auspicious marks using metal stamps (chhapa) coated with a paste made form sandalwood and water. These two stamps, both in the form of Vishnu's footprints, bear images of sacred symbols associated with the god, such as a conch shell, the disc (a solar weapon), the fish, and the lotus.
4. PMAASI_100711_125.JPG: Nandi, the God Shiva's Bull c. 1200-1250 Nandi (which means rejoicing) is the name of the god Shiva's sacred bull, and is both the vehicle of the god and his complementary image. In every sense, the virile bull "conveys" Shiva, the great ascetic whose power emerges as contained sexual energy. An image of Nandi sits in the hall or porch of temples dedicated to Shiva, facing into the sanctum as the primary devotee. This exquisite sculpture comes from a temple patronized by the Hoyshala dynasty, who ruled around the area of modern Mysore in the southern state of Karnataka during the twelfth to fourteenth centuries.
5. PMAASI_100711_208.JPG: The God Vishnu Lying on the Endless Serpent (Vishnu Anantashayana) c. 17th century This architectural relief from a wooden temple depicts the myth of Vishnu Anantashayana. It is one of the most powerful representations of the cyclical nature of reality, an idea that is fundamental to the indigenous religious traditions of India. The god Vishnu lies dreaming on the undefined ocean of existence, supported by the great snake named Ananta (which means endless). From Vishnu's navel grows a lotus, which opens to reveal the multiheaded god Brahma, who in turn creates the world as we know it. That world proceeds through its preordained stages until Vishnu's dream ends, only to begin again in his next dream, continuing forever in endless cycles. Along the bottom of the relief appear small representations of Vishnu's avatars (earthly incarnations).
6. PMAASI_100711_229.JPG: Jina Seated in Meditation c. 11th century This sculpture depicts one of the jinas, the Jain savior-saints who are perfected beings and enlightened teachers. It is possible that this image represents the jinu Mahavira, the last of the twenty-four junus and the historical founder of Jainism. Jainism is an ethical philosophy that arose around the same time as Buddhism (the sixth century BC) that focuses on the practices of nonviolence an renunciation to reach release from the cycles of rebirth. Seated in a pose of meditation, the monumental simplicity of this image epitomizes the abstract conception of these beings who no longer have bodies -- their sculpted forms are not manifestations of divinity but reminders of perfection attained. The sculpture bears a close resemblance to Jain bronzes from the site of Singanaikuppam if the South Arcot district of Tamil Nadu.
7. PMAASI_100711_256.JPG: Head of a Bodhisattva c. late 2nd to early 3rd century Well before 326BC, when Alexander the Great's Greek army conquered areas north and west of India (parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan), cultural and commercial ties had been established between the Gandhara region of Pakistan-Afghanistan and the ancient Mediterranean world. Communication between these areas flourished throughout the following millennium. This Buddhist sculpture of the Gandhara region shows Greco-Roman influence in a number of characteristics, including the facial features, heavy naturalistic drapery, and ornaments. The hair of the image finds its prototype in a Greco-Roman image of the god Apollo, the so-called Apollo Belvedere-type. This head probably belonged to an over-life-sized standing or seated figure of a Bodhisattva (one who has reached perfection but postpones his own liberation to help others).
8. PMAASI_100711_289.JPG: Ekamukha Shiva Linga (One-Faced Mark of the God Shiva) c. 1st century The linga (literally "mark") indicates the presence of the god Shiva. It is both an abstract column, representing the axis of the world, and Shiva's erect phallus, embodying the god's potency, which is built up by his ascetic discipline that holds his sexual energy at the moment before release. A linga may be sculpted from a variety of materials or be discovered occurring naturally, as in the form of an oval stone. In this early period, before the development of standing stone temples, the linga often appears to have been worshiped outdoors, set within railings on a raised platform under trees. The combination of pillar and emerging face expresses the process of the god's manifestation from invisible to visible, from abstract to human form, so that his devotees may comprehend his magnitude.
9. PMAASI_100711_315.JPG: Avolokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion c. third quarter of 5th century Avolokiteshvara (the lord who looks down upon the worlds) is believed to see the needs of every living creature and is therefore known as the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Avalokiteshvara can be distinguished by the tiny meditating figure, Amitabha, seated in his hair. Amitabha (which means infinite light) is the highest Buddha and the spiritual father of Avalokiteshvara. The missing left hand was probably raised to hold the stem of the lotus blossom in front of the halo. The facial features (the finely curved brows in a double bow shape, heavily lidded eyes, and small, full lips); the elegant and subtly molded body; and the almost invisible drapery are characteristic of fifth-century sculpture from the Sarnath area created under the rule of the Gupta dynasty (c. 4th to 6th century). The Sarnath Gupta Bodhisattva and Buddha types greatly influenced later Buddhist images across Asia.
10. PMAASI_100711_344.JPG: The Goddess Varahi c. late 5th to early 6th century Varahi is one of a group of seven mother goddesses (saptamatrikas) with benevolent and malevolent powers. There are several possible origins for this set of goddesses, one being that it may have developed from cult images such as the female squatting figures on the opposite wall. The saptamatrikas are also personifications of the energies of the male gods. Varahi is the female counterpart of Varaha, the boar incarnation of the god Vishnu. She is therefore depicted with the head of a wild pig, here modified by a woman's long hair. In addition, the saptamatrikas are considered to be aspects of Durga, the goddess who was created from the collective energies of the gods. Consequently, Varahi is shown accompanied by the buffalo demon whom Durga destroyed.
11. PMAASI_100711_359.JPG: Surya, the Sun God c. 12th century The solar deity Surya probably originated in Iran and was later assimilated into the Hindu pantheon. Consequently, he is depicted as a Central Asian warrior with boots, breastplate, and dagger. The god stands in a chariot pulled by seven horses. In each hand he holds fully opened lotus blossoms, flowers that bloom in the light of the sun. Surya is flanked by his two wives and by the male attendants Pingala (with pen and inkpot) and Dandin (with sword and shield). Above him Ushas, goddess of the Dawn, precedes the sun on his daily ride across the sky while. to either side of her, female archers dispel darkness with their arrows. This image, along with several others, was recovered in 1893 from Sagar Island, West Bengal, although the location of the workshop where it was made remains unidentified.
12. PMAASI_100711_400.JPG: Erotic Couple (Mithuna) c. 13th century The mithuna, an image of an erotically involved couple not actively engaged in sexual intercourse, is an auspicious motif because of its associations with agricultural fertility and with the creative aspect of the universe, as well as with procreation. In this image, the link with vegetal fertility is reinforced by a cluster of leaves crowning each figure. In early temples it is rare to find images as explicit as this one although couples having intertwined are common. By the eleventh century, the increasing popularity of tantric (magical) sexual rites may have contributed to making the overtly erotic couple and couples engaged in active sexual intercourse (maithuna) more frequent occupants of the profusely ornamented exterior walls of temples. In Orissa, from the eleventh century onward, mithunas and maithunas routinely appear on temples in the vertically recessed sections of the upper wall and tower.
13. PMAASI_100711_446.JPG: Water Receptacle c. 11th century of earlier The god Vishnu uses a conch shell as a war trumpet, and it is one of his identifying attributes. Within the rondel on the shell, Vishnu is represented in his martial role as protector of the universe. He flies through the sky on his mount, the bird-man Garuda, holding his weapons -- the shell trumpet, the mace, and the discus. Pierced conch shells are blown as trumpets to beckon the god during worship. This one, however, lacks a mouth-opening on its spiral end and it was probably used to hold and pour sacred water during religious ceremonies. The remarkably naturalistic depiction of playful animals suggests an early date for the carving on the shell.
14. PMAASI_100711_501.JPG: Ceremonial Teahouse: Sunkaraku (Evanescent Joys) Tokyo, c. 1917 This ceremonial teahouse was built in about 1917 by the Japanese architect Ogi Rodo. Designed in the rustic tradition or "artistic style" of the fifteenth-century artist Ogari Sotan, it also incorporates eighteenth-century elements. The Sunkaraku teahouse originally stood on the grounds of Rodo's private residence in Tokyo. He sold it to the Museum in 1928, and in 1957 it was installed at the Museum, making it the only work by Rodo outside Japan. The garden setting you see now was planned by one of Japan's foremost contemporary garden designers, Matsunosuke Tatsui. The apparent artlessness of the teahouse in fact conceals acute attention to detail and to aesthetic pleasure. The architecture of both the waiting room and the tearoom reveals a special delight in natural materials such as cypress shingles (for the roof) and bamboo. Proximity to nature is also emphasized by the garden, visible from both buildings. Everything inside the tearoom has been planned to stimulate the mind and to delight the eye. Rough, unfinished vertical posts remind guests of their imperfections and their oneness with nature; the monochrome scroll of calligraphy admonishes them to "Look to where you stand;" and the tea utensils enhance their sensitivity to natural textures and artistic creativity. The tea ceremony offers a temporary respite from the complexities of daily life. This mood perhaps inspired a famous devotee of the tea cult, Lord Fumai Matsudaira (1750-1818), when he autographed the tablet over the teahouse with the inscription "Sun Ka Raku," or Evanescent Joy.
15. PMAASI_100711_536.JPG: Temple of the Attainment of Happiness (Shofukuji) Nara, Japan 1398 This Buddhist temple of the Nuromachi period (1392-1573) was built in 1398 and extensively repaired in the latter half of the seventeenth century. It stood originally in Katagiri village in Nara Prefecture as a subsidiary part of the great Buddhist temple Horyuji. When the Shojukuji temple building was dismantled in 1928, the Museum acquired its wooden elements. The building as it now stands in the Museum follows the original plan in everything but the roof. It is supported by twelve cypress posts resting on stone bases, with white plaster walls on three sides. The front can be closed off by three wooden latticed doors (shitomi-do), the upper halves of which open horizontally inward and are held open by hooks from the ceiling. There are also two side entrances with sliding wooden doors (ama-do). The hipped roof is covered with pottery tiles and two demon, mask tiles (oni-ita) intended to frighten away evil spirits. The center of the temple holds the main altar (butsudan), where a lacquered and gilded wood statue of Amida Buddha presides. The side niches (tokonoma) are used as subsidiary altar sand also hold figures of buddhas or bodhisattvas. The standing Amida Buddha on the left is a particularly fine example of Kamakura period (1185-1333) sculpture. Before the main altar are Buddhist ritual objects of the esoteric Shingon sect, such as vases of flowers and an altar table with ceremonial utensils.
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Wikipedia Description: Philadelphia Museum of Art
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year and is now among the largest and most important art museums in the United States. Originally the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, its founding was inspired by the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) in London, which grew out of the Great Exhibition of 1851. It is known locally and colloquially as "The Art Museum." The museum opened its doors to the public on May 10, 1877, originally housed in Memorial Hall. While the location was adequate, it was isolated from the bulk of the city.

Construction of the current building began in 1919 with Mayor Thomas B. Smith laying the corner stone in a Masonic ceremony on the former reservoir land of the decommissioned Fairmount Water Works covering ten acres of ground. The first section was completed in the spring of 1928. The quasi-Greek Revival design was produced by Horace Trumbauer and the firm of Zantzinger, Borie and Medary. The fa�ade of the building is made of Minnesota dolomite. The side facing the parkway is adorned with sculptures depicting Greek gods and goddesses. There is also a collection of griffins, which were adopted as the symbol of the museum in the 1970s.

For the better part of a century the McIlhenny family held an important relationship with the museum. Henry P. McIlhenny was involved for almost half a century, first as curator from 1939 - 1964, then as chairman of the board in 1976 until his death in 1986, when he left the bulk of his estate to the museum.

The institution describes itself as being "one of the largest museums in the United States", and its collections include more than 225,000 objects, although the institution has no galleries devoted to Greek, Roman or Egyptian art.

Collections:

Each year the Museum puts on 15 to 20 special exhibitions and is visited by 800,000 people. Some of the larger and most famous special exhibitions, which have attracted hundreds of thousands of people from every state and around the world, include shows featuring Paul C�zanne (in 1996, attracting 548,000) and Salvador Dal� (in 2005, attracting 370,000).

Widely regarded as a world-class art institution, the Philadelphia Museum of Art includes not only its iconic Main Building, but also the Rodin Museum (also on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway) and several other historic sites. The recently acquired Perelman Building (across the street from the Main Building) is projected to open in 2007 and will house for public display a few of the Museum's more popular collections.

In the 18th century, Philadelphia was one of the most important cities both before and after the American Revolution and was a center of style and culture. The museum is particularly known for its important collections of Pennsylvania German art, 18th century and 19th century furniture and silver by early Philadelphia and Pennsylvania craftsmen, and works by prominent Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins. The museum houses the most important Eakins collection in the world.
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