Buddhist Art (Fall 2014)
FA 171b
M/W/Th 12:00-12:50pm
Professor Aida Yuen Wong
Office: 212 Mandel Center for the Humanities
Office Hours: Thurs 2-4pm (or by appointment)
Email:
Phone: x62670
Course Assistant: Hannah Lents
Email:
Course Description
This introductory survey of Buddhist art charts the development of visual forms and styles at key locations. The course focuses on major monuments in South, Central, and East Asia, including lesser-known sites along the legendary “Silk Road.” The main goal is to Buddhist building structures, paintings, sculptures, and other related objects in proper historical contexts. In addition to studying specialized art historical language and analytical methods, the course considers how Buddhist institutions through the ages have relied on objects to further spiritual as well as human goals. Themes such as karma, enlightenment, life, and death will be seen through the prism of material production.
Texts:
Your class notes will serve as your primary text for the course so it is important that they be legible and as detailed as possible. Listen for the descriptive language used in class, and learn how to describe and analyze accurately and concisely.
Weekly readings will be posted on LATTE. Be sure to do the reading(s) for each lecture before coming to class.
Requirements:
I. Attendance and Participation (15%)
You are expected to attend all classes and be engaged in class discussions. More than three absences will significantly impact your attendance grade. For excused absences, talk to the Professor in a timely manner.
II. Quizzes and Assignments (15%)
Quizzes on lectures and readings will be administered regularly to reinforce the knowledge acquired.
All missed quizzes and assignments receive a grade of “zero,” unless made up.
No make-up will be given unless you have a legitimate excuse, such as family emergency, sickness, job interview, athletic competition, and so forth.
Quizzes may be administered at any point during class. Unexcused late arrival or early departure does not constitute a proper excuse for missing a quiz. This condition is non-negotiable.
III. Two Midterm Examinations (20% each): October 1 and November 10; no Final Examination
1. Study your notes and readings. Borrow any missed notes from your classmates.
2. Identify the slides viewed in class. Be ready to explain the what, where, when, and why, etc.
Images viewed in class will be posted on LATTE at the end of each week. To view these images, follow the instructions below. Should you have any difficulty with these instructions, please contact Lisa Zeidenberg (Fine Arts Librarian: ). The Professor will not be of help regarding technology.
Log in to ARTstor (you will be prompted to register if you don't yet have an account).
From the Tools menu (on the far right), choose "Download offline presentation tool (OIV)."
Select PC or Mac and click the Download button.
When downloading is complete, install the image viewer on your computer.
You should then be able to view the presentation files.
IV. Webpage Project (30%): due December 1
In a team of around three members, students are responsible to design a webpage focusing on one Buddhist site and outline its history and significance. The webpage should contain texts and images about significant objects and/or monuments with stylistic analysis. (Sound and animation are optional.) Research and original writing are required. In addition, each student will submit an individual report outlining his or her contribution (with a bibliography of sources consulted) and an assessment of the group experience. All teams will present their results in class towards the end of the semester. More instructions will be given in due course.
You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. The University policy on academic honesty is distributed annually in the Rights and Responsibilities handbook. Instances of alleged dishonesty (including plagiarism) will be forwarded to the Office of Campus Life for possible referral to the Student Judicial System. Potential Sanctions include failure in the course and suspension from the University. If you have any questions about my expectations, please ask.
Classroom protocol:
1. Arrive on time and be an active participant.
2. Take notes assiduously.
3. All non-note-taking electronic devices and social media must be shut off.
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please provide the relevant documentation immediately.
Readings selected from the following list will be uploaded weekly on LATTE
(This list is subject to change.)
Agnew, Neville, Martha Demas and Wang Xudong. “The Enduring Collaboration of the Getty Conservation Institute and the Dunhuang Academy in Conservation and Management at the Buddhist Cave Temples of Dunhuang, China.” The Public Historian 34, no. 3 (Summer 2010): 7-20.
Cohn-Wiener, Ernst. “The Lady under the Tree.” Parnassus 11, no. 6 (Oct 1939): 24-29.
Faure, Bernard. “The Buddhist Icon and the Modern Gaze.” Critical Inquiry 24, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 768-813.
Flood, Finbarr Barry. “Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the Museum.” Art Bulletin 84, no. 4 (December 2002): 641-57.
Gombich, Richard. “The Consecration of a Buddhist Image.” The Journal of Asian Studies 26, no. 1 (November 1966): 23-36.
Guo, Qinghua. “From Tower to Pagoda: Structural and Technological Transition.” Construction History 20 (2004): 3-19.
Gyatso, Palden. The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk. New York: Grove Press, 1997.
Huntington, Susan. “Early Buddhist Art and the Theory of Aniconism.” Art Journal 49, no. 4, New Approaches to South Asian Art (Winter 1990): 401-408.
Hanson, James M. “Was Jesus a Buddhist?” Buddhist-Christian Studies 25 (2005): 75-89.
Harrell, Mark. “Sokkuram: Buddhist Monuments and Political Statement in Korea.” World Archaeology 27, no. 2, Buddhist Archaeology (Oct 1995): 318-35.
Karetzky, Patricia Eichenbaum. “Esoteric Buddhism and the Famensi Finds,” Archives of Asian Art 47 (1994): 78-85.
Kinnard, Jacob N. “When is the Buddha Not the Buddha? The Hindu/Buddhist Battle over Bodhgaya and its Buddha Image.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 66, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 817-39.
Kyan, Winston. “Family Space: Buddhist Materiality and Ancestral Fashioning in Mogao Cave 231.” The Art Bulletin 92, no. 1-2 (March-June 2010): 61-82.
Lee, Sherman. “Zen in Art: Art in Zen.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 9 (November 1972): 239-59.
Liu, Xinru. “Silks and Religions in Eurasia, c. A.D. 600-1200.” Journal of World History 6, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 25-48.
Myer, Prudence. “Bodhisattvas and Buddhas: Early Buddhist Images from Mathura.” Artibus Asiae 47, no. 2 (1986): 107-142.
Rhi, Ju-Hyung. “From Bodhisattva to Buddha: The Beginning of Iconic Representation in Buddhist Art.” Artibus Asiae 54, no. 3-4 (1994): 207-225.
Sharf, Robert H. “On the Allure of Buddhist Relics.” Representations 66 (Spring 1999): 75-99.
Silk, Jonathan. “The Fruits of Paradox: On the Religious Architecture of the Buddha’s Life Story.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 71, no. 4 (December 2003): 863-81.
Suzuki, Yui. “Temple as Museum, Buddha as Art: Horyuji’s ‘Kudara Kannon’ and its Great Treasure Repository.” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 52, Museums: Crossing Boundaries (Autumn 2007): 128-40.
Teiser, Stephen F. “Having Once Died and Returned to Life: Representation of Hell in Medieval China.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 48, no. 2 (December 1998): 433-64.
Thapar, Romila. “Ashoka—A Retrospective.” Economic and Political Weekly 44, no. 45 (November 7-13, 2009): 31-37.
Trainor, Kevin M. “When is a Theft Not a Theft? Relic Theft and the Cult of the Buddha’s Relics in Sri Lanka.” Numen 39, Fasc. 1 (June 1992): 1-26.
Tsunoda, Bun-ei. “Imperial Treasures of the Shosoin.” Archaeology 5, no. 4 (December 1952): 211-15.
Watanabe, Takeshi. “From Korea to Japan and Back Again: One Hundred Years of Japanese Tea Culture through Five Bowls, 1550-1650.” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin. Japanese Art at Yale (2007): 82-99.
Wriggins, Sarah. “A Buddhist Pilgrimage along the Silk Raod.” Archeology 40, no. 5 (September/October 1987): 34-41.
Yang, Liu. “Origins of Daoist Iconography.” Arts Orientalis 31 (2001): 31-64.
Yiengprusksawan, Mimi Hall. “The Interstitial Buddha: Picturing the Death of Sakyamuni.” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, Japanese Art at Yale (2007): 44-63.
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