Permanent Collection
Art of Asia
The Asian Collection encompasses over 4,000 objects from East Asia: China, Korea, and Japan; South Asia: India, Tibet and Nepal; and Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and the Indonesian archipelago. It covers all media including ceramic, metal, stone, wood, textiles, and paper.
China, Tang Dynasty, 618-906
Horse, mid 8th century
pottery and glaze, 20 1/2 x 20 1/4 x 6 1/2"
Gift of David and Lillian Spelman, 82.0309
As early as the Han dynasty (207 BCE-220 CE), representations of Central Asian horses made in pottery and bronze were considered essential in the tomb furnishings of high officials.
In the Tang dynasty, numerous pottery horses of exceptional sculptural quality were consigned to tombs of the wealthy, attesting to the continuing importance attached to the fine breeds imported from Central Asia specifically, the kingdom of Ferghana. The more natural modeling and the posture of the horses reflect a general change from preceding dynastic traditions. Equestrian portraiture was in great demand during this period, both in sculpture and in painting, but it is likely that the sculptor took the initiative in establishing the new ideal.
 |
Korea, Three Kingdoms Period, Kaya Federation, 42-562
Stem Cup [Kobae],
5th to mid-6th century
pottery, 7 1/8 h. x 5 5/8" dia.
Museum purchase through funds from Mr. and Mrs. C. Ruxton Love, 92.0014.02
While owing a debt for its social organization and cultural evolution to its powerful neighbor, China, Korea developed a unique society and art forms that blended Chinese cultural influence with Korean tastes. In turn, the Koreans made significant contributions to Japan, their neighbor to the south, through immigration. From very early times, Korean ceramics were distinctive, much admired, and apparently imported in large numbers by the Japanese. Korean potters were actively encouraged, either forcibly through raids or peacefully through trade, to settle in Japan and establish kilns there.
This would explain why many early Japanese ceramics of the late Kofun era (6th century) are stylistically similar to those from the Korean peninsula. Stem Cups (kobae) were made for burial in 5th and 6th century Korean tombs. Their tall perforated feet and precise smoothing of the body are typical of the care exercised by the Koreans on their ceramics. A group of these stem cups were excavated from a tomb at Sungsan-dong, near Koryong, were they were stacked to accompany the occupant to the underworld. |
|
 |
Japan, Edo Period, 1615-1868
Landscape with Waterfowl,
second half of the
16th century
ink on paper, 46 3/4 x 72 7/8"
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. C. Ruxton Love, 57.003.000
The arrangement of this sumi-e (ink) monochrome landscape painting is typical of the early Momoyama Kano artists, as illustrated by the grouping of birds and the arrangement of the elements within the painting.
Scholars have suggested that this piece probably originally functioned as a wall or door painting to decorate a residential or temple complex. It captures the bleakness of winter in the use of the brushwork to shape and contour the rock formations.
A sign of the oncoming spring is seen in the early blossoming of the plum tree that intrudes into the composition at radical angles in both the upper left quadrant and upper right corner of the painting.
The Motonbu seal, in the form of a Chinese tripod (ding), is a later addition and the artist remains unknown, although the work does have some of the stylistic characteristics of the early Kano artist, Kano Shoei (1519-1592).
|
|
