Asian Art

Asian art is usually broken down according to the regional, religious, and cultural differences of people living in this part of the world. The main geographical areas are West Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. The dominant religio-philosophical currents in Asian history have been Hinduism, Buddism, Islam, Taoism, and Confucianism. In keeping with precedents set in scholarly studies of Asian art, this entry divides Asian art into the following: Ancient Near Eastern and Islamic; Indian (Hindu and Buddhist); and East Asian (China, Korea, and Japan).

While there is remarkable variety and richness in the traditions of Asian art, certain common features can be seen in some eases. Through many periods of Asian history, artists working in pictorial forms tended to emphasize symbolic features over naturalistic rendering, often developing comparatively abstract designs. Artisans and artists made numerous technological advances in bronze, ceramic, and other media, allowing the decorative arts to occupy a significant standing in many Asian - art traditions. In addition, calligraphers developed their script styles into high art in the Islamic world and East Asia.

Ancient Near Eastern and Islamic Art

In the ancient periods of Near Eastern history, artists crafted fine objects and architects designed monuments with distinctive religious and political associations.

In West Asia (the area of present-day Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan) a number of civilizations emerged in ancient times, producing impressive palace and temple structures and decorative-art objects. Later, as segments of the population in many of these countries accepted Islam,artists altered their subject matter, media, and techniques to reflect new religious concerns.

Among the most ancient items recognized as art objects found in the Near East are the plaster-covered skulls from Jericho, in Jordan, thought to date to around 7000 b.c., presumably made for ancestral worship, the oldest monumental builing in the Near East are the ziggurats of the Sumerians (3500-2340 b.c.) of Mesopotamia. Sumerian statues representing human figures are often identified as gods and goddesses.

The warlike Assyrians (c. 1000-612 b.c.) of northern Mesopotamia carved out a large domain and sponsored construction of impressive royal monuments to proclaim their glory, such as the Palace of Sargon II (8th century b.c.) at Dur Sharrukin, Iraq. After the fall of the Assyrians, the kings of the Neo-Babylottian empire (605-539 b.c.) gained supremacy in the region. The glazed-brick Istar Gate, displayed in the State Museum, Berlin, survives from the holy precinct of King Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon.

The Persian empire (539-331 b.c.), centering on Mesopotamia, reached its apex under Darius I and Xerxes I. Their palace at Persepolis sits on a tall platform with walls featuring relief scenes of imperial audiences, attesting to the great building projects of the Persians. The Sasanian empire emerged in Iran in the early 3d century a.d. and preserved the Near Eastern tradition of expressing imperial grandeur in architecture, as seen in the palace of Shapur I at Ctesiphon (242-272).

Following the death of the prophet Muhammad in 632 a.d., Islam rapidly spread through Egypt, North Africa, Spain, and the Middle East, bringing to these regions certain artistic notions of their Arabic founders, Islamic art was also influenced by local traditions and includes works with religious subject matter and functions from countries in which Islam became a dominant force, along with the secular art produced there. Islamic religious art is largely aniconic. Opposition to idol-making dates to Muhammad's time. The holy book of Islam, the Qur'an (Koran), condemns the worship of idols and refers to Allah (the Arabic word for God) as the single creator of all life forms. Based on this, traditional thought holds that humans should not presume to imitate Allah in creating living beings. Though artists generally were not bound by the injunction against portraying living forms in secular art; the tendency to avoid human and animal subjects in religious art objects and buildings such as mosques affected the whole of Islamic art fundamentally. The main source of inspiration for such decoration was calligraphy, especially important because writing was the vehicle for preserving and transmitting the word of Allah and the teaching of Muhammad. Among the numerous Arabic scripts are kufa (earliest form), nashki, and nasha'liq.

Whether angular or fluid, the linear quality of Arabic script exerted strong influences on pictorial and decorative art in the Islamic world. This is evident in the widespread use of the arabesque, a motif combining vegetal and geometric forms, typically in a symmetrical pattern. The design of prayer halls was codified early in Islamic history, Muhammad's home in Medina, which consisted of a rectangular courtyard covered at one end, became the typical plan for mosques. Mosques usually have a square or rectangular courtyard and supports for a roof along one wall, the giblah wall, which faces the holy city of Mecca and provides shade for prayer.

Minaret, a tower from which times of prayer are called; the minbar, a pulpit or chair, often placed near the qiblah wall, from which a preacher delivers a sermon during the Friday noon prayer; and the mihrab, an indentation or niche in the qiblah wall, a place for remembering Muhammad and for the faithful to direct their prayers. The largest mosque ever built was the Great Mosque of Samarra, which dates to the Abbasid dynasty (750-1258).

The independent dynasties ruling western regions of the Islamic world produced monumental architectural forms, such as the Great Mosque of Kairouan, built by the Aghlabids of Tunisia (800—909). The Moors, or Muslims of Spain and North Africa, left a rich artistic legacy. In 13th-and 14th-century Spain, Nasrid kings built the palace in Granadа known as the Alhambra ("the red fortress") with its renowned Court of the Lions. Delicate decoration covers surfaces of walls, floors, and ceilings, the latter featuring a distinctive type of stucco vault suspended from a wooden frame; referred to as mugarnas.

Sultans of Mamluk (1250-1517) in Egypt commissioned impressive mosque-mausoleum соmplexes with tall domes. From Iran, the Seljuks (1037— 1157) assumed cultural leadership of the Middle East and created distinctive styles of Perso-Turkish art and architecture. In 1256, Mongol armies swept through Iran, ending what is sometimes called the early period of Islamic art.

The Mongols, founders of the Il-Khanid dynasty (1256—1353), were renowned for their destructive force, but several Mongol Khans were also great art patrons. Mongol painters integrated Central and East Asian elements into the Persian manner. Several illustrated manuscripts survive from around 1300, including the Demotte Shah Nameh ("The Book of Kings"; c. 1330-1336). Illustrating legends of pre-Islamic princes and heroes, these pages feature rich colors, strong compositions, and a harmonious blending of styles. The Il-Khanid manner is considered the first fully realized style of Persian Islamic painting.

After the fall of the Il-Khanids, Central Asia and Persia were unified by Timur, who imported artists from across his kingdom to work on ambitious building projects at Samarqand, in Turkestan. Manuscript illumination is considered the greatest art of the Timurid dynasty (1369-1500) and the succeeding Safavid dynasty (1502—1736). Their painters employed brilliant colors and delicate details, leading to the designation of this art form as Persian miniature painting. The illustrators focused on romances and heroic epics set in fantastic fairy-tale realms. Of the many individual hands identified in Timurid painting, the most illustrious is Bihzad, acclaimed for his dramatic innovations. The Shah Nameh of Shah Tahmasp, with 258 illustrated pages, is considered the greatest 16th-century illuminated manuscript and the most gorgeous "Book of Kings" ever produced.

Strongly inspired by Persian culture, the Shahs of India's last major Muslim empire, the Mughal dynasty (1526—1858), called Safavid artists to their court to train Indian artists. Mughal kings were fascinated with elegantly crafted accoutrements. This love of refinement is beautifully preserved in the Taj Mahal ("Crown of the Palace"; 1647), the white marble tomb commissioned by Shan Jahan at Agra for his favorite wife.

From their base in Turkey, Sultans of the Ottoman dynasty (1300—1924) established a vast empire and constructed outstanding religious structures. Influential in the formation of the Ottoman mosque type was Sinan, whose masterpiece, sculpture spanned the 4th to the 8th century.

Most early Hindu architecture has been lost, probably owing to its being constructed in wood. Mahabalipuram, a pilgrimage center during the Pallava dynasty (southern India; c. 500—700), is one of the older extant temple-and-shrine complexes. The evolution of early Hindu architectural styles is well documented in structures cut from granite boulders found here. The group of shrines known as the Five Raths (chariots), carved to simulate wooden architecture, shows a gradual increase in elaboration. There are also granite and cave temples and monumental sculpture at Mahabalipuram. The Descent of the Ganges (630-668), a huge relief carving on a boulder face, features dozens of animals, humans, and deities. The high point of Hindu cave temples occurs at Ellora (6th—8th century) in west-central India, where expanses of relief sculpture cover the walls of numerous temples. The developed style of Hindu freestanding temple architecture is seen in the Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram (8th century).

Buddhist Art

Art of a second major religious tradition in India, Buddhism, antedates Hindu art, at least in terms of what survives. The renowned Maury an king Asoka (c. 274—237 b.c.) supposedly established Buddhism as the state religion and erected sandstone memorial columns with animal capitals at sites important to the Buddha's life. Three basic forms of Buddhist architecture were also developed at this time: the stupa (burial mound), chaitya hall (nave with a stupa in the apse), and vihara (monastic cell and refectory). Three monumental stupas survive at Sanchi in central India, which date between the Maurya dynasty (322—185 b.c.) and the Andhra dynasty (c. 70 b.c-3d century a.d.). The stupa is a small-scale replica of the cosmos, consisting of a domelike mound of earth covered with stone and stucco, which symbolizes the World Mountain. Pilgrims circumambulate the stupa, following the "Path of Life." Sculpture on stupa gates illustrates jataka scenes, narratives of the Buddha's earlier incarnations, with symbols to designate the Buddha.

In early Buddhist art, the figure of the Buddha was never represented, but under the Kushan dynasty (50—320 a.d.), artists began to depict divinity in human form, perhaps to rival figures in Hindu art. Two manners of Kushan figural sculpture emerged, one a Greco-Roman style associated with Gandhara and the other closer to earlier Indian precedents associated with Mathura. The heavy draperies, jewelry, and wavy hair of many Gand liaran sculptures suggest influence from Classical Mediterranean art. During the Gupta dynasty (320—647), Mathura continued to be an important artistic center, and the style associated with it exhibits a softened but clearly iconic quality in Buddhist figures. The perfectly proportioned Standing Buddha (4th century; National Museum, New Delhi) projects a meditative calm, justifying the designation of Gupta style as classical Buddhist art of India.

Standard iconography emerged in early Buddhist imagery. Sacred signs of the Buddha include the urna (a third eye on the forehead), the wheel (chakra) or lotus symbols on the feet, the webbed fingers, and the elongated earlobes. The Buddha is often shown seated in meditation or preaching the First Sermon, or standing. The gesture of his hands (mudra) conveys particular meaning.

The most important repository of early Buddhist painting is Ajanta, a pilgrimage site with 29 cave temples in central India. The halls were originally covered with colorful tempera paintings produced over eight centuries. Many extant fragments show dense crowds of figures. The early compositions at Ajanta are arranged in horizontal bands derived from handscroll paintings. Later compositions include figures shown from various three-dimensional viewpoints, with color modeling Numerous small, colorful paintings on palm leaf or paper survive from the 12th through the 15th century; those from western India are mostly Jain texts and those from eastern India are mostly Buddhist. In the 16th century artists began making larger illustrations. Influenced by the Persian manner of Mughal painters, artists in Hindu Rajasthan and central India developed the Rajput style, popular in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Art forms of China, Korea, and Japan share many cultural, philosophical, and religious associations. Over the course of centuries, artists of East Asian countries often depicted similar subject matter and employed similar media and stylistic approaches. Particularly important in the formation of these art forms were developments in China. Many artistic and technological advances first realized there, such as bronze and porcelain production, later spread to Korea and Japan, where artists altered the manufacturing processes to achieve new aesthetic effects. Buddhism was a leading force in shaping art during certain phases of East Asian history. As Chinese priests from different Buddhist movements spread their teachings to Korea and Japan, they also disseminated Chinese artistic and cultural traditions.

China

China witnessed many significant early developments in art. Existed many dinasties: Zhou dynasty (1045-256 b.c.), Qin dynasty (221—207 b.g), Han dynasty (206 B.c—220 a.d.), the Northern Wei dynasty (386—535), Tang dynasty (618—906), the Yuan dynasty (1280—1368), Ming dynasty(1368-1644).

Chinese culture was consolidated under the first emperor of the Qin dynasty (221—207 b.g), who sponsored construction of the Great Wall, a tomb tor himself near Xian, and other vast projects. In the Han dynasty (206 B.c—220 a.d.), China expanded its borders and became a thriving society with new diversity in art. With the introduction of Buddhism, artists began to stress the human form. Emperors of the Northern Wei dynasty (386—535) initiated major temple-building campaigns at Yungang and Longmen. A treasury of early Buddhist painting is preserved at Dunnuang on the Silk Route; frescoes painted over the course of centuries show a mixture of Chinese, Indian, and Central Asian styles.

The culmination of Buddhist art occurred early in the Tang dynasty (618—906), when artists created many classical forms, notably figure painting.

In the Yuan dynasty (1280—1368), under Mongol domination, the "Four Great Masters" were largely responsible for founding the wenrenhua (literati painting) tradition. In painting of the Ming dynasty(1368-1644), the work of gentlemen-scholars is lauded as most creative.

In ceramics, blue and white porcelain, apparently first produced in 14th-century China, became plentiful during the Ming period. Potters gradually learned to control cobalt underglaze and began adding other colors in overglaze enamel. Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty sponsored reconstruction of imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, where a huge ceramic industry blossomed.

Korea and Japan

Artists in Korea and Japan were strongly inspired by eminent cultural models of China: artists and architects focused much energy on Buddhist sculpture and temple construction; painters worked in brush and ink; and ceramic and lacquer artists excelled On the other hand, Korean and Japanese artists created distinctive native approaches.

See also:

- Western Art
- African Art
- Oceanic Art
- Native American Art
- ArtWorks as an Investments