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Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Volume I 13th Edition, (Ebook PDF)
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About the Author
FRED S.KLEINER (Ph.D.,Columbia University) is the co-author ofthe 10th,11th,and 12th editions of Art through the Ages and more than a hundred publications on Greek and Roman art and architecture,including A History ofRoman Art, also published by Wadsworth.He has taught the art history survey course for more than three decades, first at the University ofVirginia and,since 1978,at Boston University,where he is currently Professor ofArt History and Archaeology and Chair ofthe Art History Department.Long recognized for his inspiring lectures and devotion to students,Professor Kleiner won Boston University’s MetcalfAward for Excellence in Teaching as well as the College Prize for Undergraduate Advising in the Humanities in 2002 and is a two-time winner ofthe Distinguished Teaching Prize in the College ofArts and Sciences Honors Program.He was Editor-in-Chiefofthe American Journal ofArchaeology from 1985 to 1998.
Also by Fred Kleiner: A History ofRoman Art (Wadsworth 2007;ISBN 0534638465),winner ofthe 2007 Texty Prize as the best new college textbook in the humanities and social sciences.In this authoritative and lavishly illustrated volume,Professor Kleiner traces the development ofRoman art and architecture from Romulus’foundation ofRome in the eighth century BCE to the death ofConstantine in the fourth century CE,with special chapters devoted to Pompeii and Herculaneum,Ostia,funerary and provincial art and architecture,and the earliest Christian art.
Mound,Ohio,ca.1070.1,200 long,20 wide,5 high.
Serpent
About the Cover Art
Serpent Mound is one ofthe largest monuments surviving from the Native American cultures that flourished in North America before the arrival ofEuropeans at the end ofthe 15th century.First excavated in the 1880s,this “effigy mound”represents one ofthe first efforts at preserving a Native American site from destruction at the hands ofpot hunters and farmers.Scholars believe that the people known as the Mississippians built Serpent Mound during the 11th century.Unlike most other ancient Native American mounds, this one appears not to have been either a burial site or temple platform.The Mississippians,however, strongly associated snakes with the earth and the fertility ofcrops,explaining why they would construct a mound in the shape ofa snake.A stone figurine found at one Mississippian site,for example,depicts a woman digging her hoe into the back ofa large serpentine creature whose tail turns into a vine ofgourds. Some researchers,however,have proposed another possible meaning,and assigned a date around 1070,for the construction ofSerpent Mound.The date corresponds to the years following the brightest appearance in recorded history ofHalley’s Comet in 1066.Scholars have suggested that the serpentine form ofthe mound is not an effigy ofa snake;rather,it replicates the comet streaking across the night sky.
The names ofthe artists and patrons responsible for conceiving and constructing Serpent Mound are unknown.This is typical ofmost ofthe history ofart worldwide,and although it has become standard since the Renaissance for Western artists to sign and date their work,anonymous artworks remained the norm in most ofthe non-Western world until very recently. Art through the Ages: Non-Western Perspectives surveys the art and architecture ofAsia,Native America,Africa,and Oceania from prehistory to the present,and examines how artworks ofall kinds,whether anonymous or signed,always reflect the diverse historical contexts in which they were created.
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CONTENTS
PREFACExi
INTRODUCTION WHAT IS ART HISTORY?1
Art History in the 21st Century2
Different Ways of Seeing8
CHAPTER 1
SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA BEFORE 12009
India and Pakistan9
Southeast Asia26
❚ RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY: Buddhism and Buddhist Iconography13
❚ WRITTEN SOURCES: Ashoka’s Conversion to Buddhism14
❚ ARCHITECTURAL BASICS: The Stupa15
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: The Painted Caves of Ajanta19
❚ RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY: Hinduism and Hindu Iconography20
❚ ARCHITECTURAL BASICS: Hindu Temples24
THE BIG PICTURE 31
CHAPTER 2
SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA AFTER 120033
India33
Southeast Asia41
Contemporary Art44
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Indian Miniature Painting36
THE BIG PICTURE 45
CHAPTER 3
CHINA AND KOREA TO 127947
China47
Korea68
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Sheng Bronze-Casting49
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Chinese Jade51
❚ RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY: Daoism and Confucianism52
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Silk and the Silk Road54
❚ ARCHITECTURAL BASICS: Chinese Wooden Construction55
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Chinese Painting Materials and Formats56
❚ ARTISTS ON ART: Xie He’s Six Canons57
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Chinese Earthenwares and Stonewares62
❚ RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY Chan Buddhism67
THE BIG PICTURE 71
CHAPTER 4
CHINA
AND KOREA AFTER 127973
China73
Korea84
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Chinese Porcelain76
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Lacquered Wood78
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Calligraphy and Inscriptions on Chinese Paintings80
THE BIG PICTURE 87
CHAPTER 5
JAPAN BEFORE 133389
Japan before Buddhism89
Buddhist Japan92
❚ RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY: Shinto93
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: Heian Court Culture99
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: Heian and Kamakura Artistic Workshops101
THE BIG PICTURE 103
CHAPTER 6
JAPAN AFTER 1336105
Japan,1336 to 1868105
Modern Japan116
❚ RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY: Zen Buddhism106
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: The Japanese Tea Ceremony110
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Japanese Woodblock Prints114
THE BIG PICTURE 119
CHAPTER 7
THE ISLAMIC WORLD121
Early Islamic Art122
Later Islamic Art132
❚ RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY: Muhammad and Islam123
❚ ARCHITECTURAL BASICS: The Mosque125
❚ ARTISTS ON ART: Sinan the Great and the Mosque of Selim II134
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Islamic Tilework137
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: Christian Patronage of Islamic Art142
THE BIG PICTURE 143
CHAPTER
8
NATIVE ARTS OF THE AMERICAS BEFORE 1300145
Mesoamerica146
Intermediate Area159
South America160
North America167
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: The Mesoamerican Ball Game152
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Andean Weaving162
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: Serpent Mound169
THE BIG PICTURE 171
CHAPTER 9
NATIVE ARTS OF THE AMERICAS AFTER 1300173
Mesoamerica173
South America178
North America180
❚ RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY: Aztec Religion176
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: Gender Roles in Native American Art183
THE BIG PICTURE 189
CHAPTER 10
AFRICA BEFORE 1800191
Prehistory and Early Cultures192
11th to 18th Centuries197
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: Dating African Art and Identifying African Artists193
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: Art and Leadership in Africa195
❚ ART AND SOCIETY:Idealized Naturalism at Ile-Ife196
THE BIG PICTURE 203
CHAPTER 11
AFRICA AFTER 1800205
19th Century205
20th Century211
Contemporary Art220
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: Gender Roles in African Art Production212
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: African Artists and Apprentices213
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: African Masquerades215
❚ ART AND SOCIETY: Mende Women as Maskers217
THE BIG PICTURE 223
CHAPTER 12 OCEANIA225
Australia and Melanesia226
Micronesia232
Polynesia234
❚ ART AND SOCIETY:Women’s Roles in Oceania233
❚ MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES:Tongan Barkcloth235
❚ ART AND SOCIETY:Tattoo in Polynesia237
THE BIG PICTURE 241
GLOSSARY242
BIBLIOGRAPHY248
CREDITS253
INDEX255
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PREFACE
WhenHelen Gardner published the first edition of Art through the Ages in 1926,she could not have imagined that more than 80 years later instructors all over the world would still be using her textbook in their classrooms.Indeed,ifshe were alive today,she would not recognize the book that long ago became—and remains—the most widely read introduction to the history ofart and architecture in the English language.During the past halfcentury, successive authors have constantly reinvented Helen Gardner’s groundbreaking global survey,always keeping it fresh and current, and setting an ever-higher standard in both content and publication quality with each new edition.I hope both professors and students will agree that this 13th edition lives up to that venerable tradition.
Certainly,this latest edition offers much that is fresh and new (enumerated below),but some things have not changed,including the fundamental beliefthat guided Helen Gardner—namely,that the primary goal ofan introductory art history textbook should be to foster an appreciation and understanding ofhistorically significant works ofart ofall kinds from all periods and from all parts ofthe globe.Because ofthe longevity and diversity ofthe history ofart,it is tempting to assign responsibility for telling its story to a large team of specialists.The Gardner publishers themselves took this approach for the first edition they produced after Helen Gardner’s death,and it has now become the norm for introductory art history surveys.But students overwhelmingly say that the very complexity ofthe global history ofart makes it all the more important for the story to be told with a consistent voice ifthey are to master so much diverse material. I think Helen Gardner would be pleased to know that this new edition of Art through the Ages once again has a single storyteller.
Along with the late Richard Tansey and my more recent collaborator,Christin Mamiya,with whom I had the honor and pleasure of working on the 10th,11th,and 12th editions,I continue to believe that the most effective way to tell the story ofart through the ages,especially to someone studying art history for the first time,is to organize the vast array ofartistic monuments according to the civilizations that produced them and to consider each work in roughly chronological order.This approach has not merely stood the test of time.It is the most appropriate way to narrate the history ofart.The principle that underlies my approach to every period ofart history is that the enormous variation in the form and meaning ofthe paintings,sculptures,buildings,and other artworks men and women have produced over the past 30,000 years is largely the result ofthe constantly changing contexts in which artists and architects worked.A
historically based narrative is therefore best suited for a global history ofart because it permits the author to situate each work discussed in its historical,social,economic,religious,and cultural context.That is, after all,what distinguishes art history from art appreciation.
In the first (1926) edition of Art through the Ages, Helen Gardner discussed Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso in a chapter entitled “Contemporary Art in Europe and America.”Since then many other artists have emerged on the international scene,and the story ofart through the ages has grown longer and even more complex.More important, perhaps,the discipline ofart history has changed markedly in recent decades,and so too has Helen Gardner’s book.In fact,although Gardner was a pioneer in writing a global history ofart in the early part ofthe 20th century,even she would be surprised that so many college courses now include only the arts ofnon-Western cultures. That is why Wadsworth introduced Art through the Ages: Non-Western Perspectives in 2006.
This new edition fully reflects the latest art historical research emphases while maintaining the traditional strengths that have made previous editions of Art through the Ages so popular.While sustaining attention to style,chronology,iconography,and technique,I also ensure that issues ofpatronage,function,and context loom large in every chapter.I treat artworks not as isolated objects in sterile 21st-century museum settings but with a view toward their purpose and meaning in the society that produced them at the time they were produced.I examine not only the role ofthe artist or architect in the creation ofa work ofart or a building,but also the role ofthe individuals or groups who paid the artists and influenced the shape the monuments took.Further,I devote more space than previously to the role ofwomen and women artists in societies worldwide over time.In every chapter,I have tried to choose artworks and buildings that reflect the increasingly wide range ofinterests of scholars today,while not rejecting the traditional list of“great”works or the very notion ofa “canon.”Consequently,the selection ofworks in this edition encompasses every artistic medium and almost every era and culture in the non-Western world,and includes many works that until recently art historians would not have considered to be “art”at all.
The 12th edition of Art through the Ages was the number-one choice for art history survey courses and the best-selling version of the book in its long history,and for this 13th edition I have retained all ofthe features that made its predecessor so successful.This nonWestern version ofthe global survey contains the chapters on the art
and architecture ofSouth and Southeast Asia,China and Korea, Japan,the Islamic world,Native North and South America,Africa, and Oceania.It boasts roughly 300 photographs,plans,and drawings,virtually all in color and reproduced according to the highest standards ofclarity and color fidelity.Included are many new or upgraded photos by a host ofnew photographers as well as redesigned maps and plans.
The captions to the illustrations in this edition of Art through the Ages,as before,contain a wealth ofinformation,including the name ofthe artist or architect,ifknown;the formal title (printed in italics),ifassigned,description ofthe work,or name ofthe building;the provenance or place ofproduction ofthe object or location ofthe building;the date;the material(s) used;the size;and the current location ifthe work is in a museum or private collection.As in previous editions,scales accompany all plans,but for the first time scales now also appear next to each photograph ofa painting,statue,or other artwork.The works illustrated vary enormously in size,from colossal sculptures carved into mountain cliffs and paintings that cover entire walls or ceilings to tiny figurines and jewelry that one can hold in the hand.Although the captions contain the pertinent dimensions,it is hard for students who have never seen the paintings or statues in person to translate those dimensions into an appreciation ofthe real size ofthe objects.The new scales provide an effective and direct way to visualize how big or how small a given artwork is and its relative size compared with other objects in the same chapter and throughout the book.
Also new to this edition are the Quick-Review Captions that students found so useful when these were introduced in 2006 in the first edition of Art through the Ages: A Concise History. These briefsynopses ofthe most significant aspects ofeach artwork or building illustrated accompany the captions to all images in the book.They have proved invaluable to students preparing for examinations.In the 13th edition I have also provided two new tools to aid students in reviewing and mastering the material.Each chapter now ends with a fullpage feature called The Big Picture,which sets forth in bullet-point format the most important characteristics ofeach period or region discussed in the chapter.Small illustrations ofcharacteristic works discussed accompany the summary ofmajor points.Finally,I have attempted to tie all ofthe chapters together by providing with each copy of Art through the Ages a poster-size Global Timeline.This too features illustrations ofkey monuments ofeach age and geographical area as well as a briefenumeration ofthe most important art historical developments during that period.The timeline is global in scope to permit students to compare developments in the non-Western world with contemporaneous artworks produced in the West.The poster has four major horizontal bands corresponding to Europe,the Americas,Asia,and Africa,and 34 vertical columns for the successive chronological periods from 30,000 BCE to the present.
Boxed essays once again appear throughout the book as well.This popular feature first appeared in the 11th edition of Art through the Ages,which won both the Texty and McGuffey Prizes ofthe Text and Academic Authors Association for the best college textbook of2001 in the humanities and social sciences.In this edition the essays are more closely tied to the main text than ever before.Consistent with that greater integration,most boxes now incorporate photographs of important artworks discussed in the text proper that also illustrate the theme treated in the boxed essays.These essays fall under six broad categories,one ofwhich is new to the 13th edition.
Architectural Basics boxes provide students with a sound foundation for the understanding ofarchitecture.These discussions are concise explanations,with drawings and diagrams,ofthe major aspects ofdesign and construction.The information included is essential to
an understanding ofarchitectural technology and terminology.The boxes address questions ofhow and why various forms developed, the problems architects confronted,and the solutions they used to resolve them.Topics discussed include the form and meaning ofthe stupa,the origin and development ofthe mosque,and the construction ofwooden buildings in China.
Materials and Techniques essays explain the various media artists employed from prehistoric to modern times.Since materials and techniques often influence the character ofartworks,these discussions contain essential information on why many monuments appear as they do.Hollow-casting in bronze in Shang China,Japanese woodblock prints,and Andean weaving are among the many subjects treated.
Religion and Mythology boxes introduce students to the principal elements ofthe world’s great religions,past and present,and to the representation ofreligious and mythological themes in painting and sculpture ofall periods and places.These discussions ofbeliefsystems and iconography give readers a richer understanding ofsome ofthe greatest artworks ever created.The topics include Buddhism and Buddhist iconography,Muhammad and Islam,and Aztec religion.
Art and Society essays treat the historical,social,political,cultural,and religious context ofart and architecture.The subjects addressed include the Japanese tea ceremony,the Mesoamerican ball game,art and leadership in Africa,and tattoo in Polynesia.
Written Sources present and discuss key historical documents illuminating important monuments ofart and architecture throughout the world.The passages quoted permit voices from the past to speak directly to the reader,for example King Ashoka explaining his conversion to Buddhism,which initiated a new era in Asian art.
A new category is Artists on Art in which artists and architects throughout history discuss both their theories and individual works. Examples include Sinan the Great discussing the mosque he designed for Selim II,and Xia He’s exposition ofthe six canons ofChinese painting.
Rounding out the features in the book itselfis a Glossary containing definitions ofall terms introduced in the text in italics and a Bibliography ofbooks in English,including both general works and a chapter-by-chapter list ofmore focused studies.
The 13th edition of Art through the Ages is not,however,a standalone text,but one element ofa complete package oflearning tools. In addition to the Global Timeline,every new copy ofthe book comes with a password to ArtStudy Online, a web site with access to a host ofmultimedia resources that students can employ throughout the entire course,including image flashcards,tutorial quizzes,podcasts,vocabulary,and more.Instructors have access to a host of teaching materials,including digital images with zoom capabilities, video,and Google Earth™ coordinates.
A work as diverse as this history ofnon-Western art could not be undertaken or completed without the counsel ofexperts in all areas treated.As with previous editions,the publisher has enlisted dozens of art historians to review every chapter of Art through the Ages: NonWestern Perspectives in order to ensure that the text lived up to the Gardner reputation for accuracy as well as readability.I take great pleasure in acknowledging here the invaluable contributions to the 13th edition made by the following for their critiques ofvarious chapters: Charles M.Adelman,University ofNorthern Iowa;Kirk Ambrose, University ofColorado–Boulder;Susan Ashbrook,Art Institute of Boston;James J.Bloom,Florida State University;Suzaan Boettger, Bergen Community College;Colleen Bolton,Mohawk Valley Community College;Angi Elsea Bourgeois,Mississippi State University; Lawrence E.Butler,George Mason University;Alexandra Carpino, Northern Arizona University;Hipolito Rafael Chacon,The University
ofMontana;Catherine M.Chastain,North Georgia College & State University;Daniel Connolly,Augustana College;Michael A.Coronel, University ofNorthern Colorado;Nicole Cox,Rochester Institute of Technology;Jodi Cranston,Boston University;Kathy Curnow,Cleveland State University;Giovanna De Appolonia,Boston University; Marion de Koning,Grossmont College;John J.Dobbins,University of Virginia;B.Underwood DuRette,Thomas Nelson Community College;Daniel Ehnbom,University ofVirginia;Lisa Farber,Pace University;James Farmer,Virginia Commonwealth University;Jerome Feldman,Hawaii Pacific University;Sheila ffolliott,George Mason University;Ferdinanda Florence,Solano Community College;William B.Folkestad,Central Washington University;Mitchell Frank,Carleton University;Sara L.French,Wells College;Norman P.Gambill,South Dakota State University;Elise Goodman,University ofCincinnati; Kim T.Grant,University ofSouthern Maine;Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Silk Road Project;Sandra C.Haynes,Pasadena City College;Valerie Hedquist,The University ofMontana;Susan Hellman,Northern Virginia Community College;Marian J.Hollinger,Fairmont State University;Cheryl Hughes,Alta High School;Heidrun Hultgren,Kent State University;Joseph M.Hutchinson,Texas A&M University;Julie M. Johnson,Utah State University;Sandra L.Johnson,Citrus College; Deborah Kahn,Boston University;Fusae Kanda,Harvard University; Catherine Karkov,Miami University;Wendy Katz,University of Nebraska–Lincoln;Nita Kehoe-Gadway,Central Wyoming College; Nancy L.Kelker,Middle Tennessee State University;Cathie Kelly,University ofNevada–Las Vegas;Katie Kempton,Ohio University;John F. Kenfield,Rutgers University;Monica Kjellman-Chapin,Emporia State University;Kathryn E.Kramer,State University ofNew York–Cortland;Carol Krinsky,New York University;Lydia Lehr,Atlantic Cape Community College;Krist Lien,Shelton State Community College;Ellen Longsworth,Merrimack College;Dominic Marner,University ofGuelph;Jack Brent Maxwell,Blinn College;Anne McClanan, Portland State University;Brian McConnell,Florida Atlantic University;Amy McNair,University ofKansas;Patrick McNaughton,Indiana University;Cynthia Millis,Houston Community College–Southwest; Cynthia Taylor Mills,Brookhaven College;Keith N.Morgan,Boston University;Johanna D.Movassat,San Jose State University;Heidi Nickisher,Rochester Institute ofTechnology;Bonnie Noble,University ofNorth Carolina–Charlotte;Abigail Noonan,Rochester Institute of Technology;Karen Michelle O’Day,University ofWisconsin–Eau Claire;Allison Lee Palmer,University ofOklahoma;Martin Patrick, Illinois State University;Jane Peters,University ofKentucky;Julie Anne Plax,University ofArizona;Donna Karen Reid,Chemeketa Community College;Albert W.Reischuch,Kent State University; Jonathan Ribner,Boston University;Cynthea Riesenberg,Washington Latin School;James G.Rogers Jr.,Florida Southern College;Carey Rote,Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi;David J.Roxburgh,Harvard University;Conrad Rudolph,University ofCalifornia–Riverside;
Catherine B.Scallen,Case Western Reserve University;Natasha Seaman,Berklee College ofMusic;Malia E.Serrano,Grossmont College; Fred T.Smith,Kent State University;Laura Sommer,Daemen College; Nancy Steele-Hamme,Midwestern State University;Andrew Stewart, University ofCalifornia–Berkeley;John R.Stocking,University ofCalgary;Francesca Tronchin,Ohio State University;Kelly Wacker,University ofMontevallo;Carolynne Whitefeather,Utica College;Nancy L. Wicker,University ofMississippi;Alastair Wright,Princeton University;Michael Zell,Boston University.
I am also happy to have this opportunity to express my gratitude to the extraordinary group ofpeople at Wadsworth involved with the editing,production,and distribution of Art through the Ages. Some of them I have now worked with on various projects for more than a decade and feel privileged to count among my friends.The success of the Gardner series in all ofits various permutations depends in no small part on the expertise and unflagging commitment ofthese dedicated professionals:Sean Wakely,executive vice president,Cengage Arts and Sciences;P.J.Boardman,vice president and editor-inchief,Cengage Arts and Sciences;Clark Baxter,publisher;Sharon Adams Poore,senior development editor;Helen Triller-Yambert,development editor;Lianne Ames,senior content project manager; Kimberly Apfelbaum,assistant editor;Wendy Constantine,senior media editor;Nell Pepper,editorial assistant;Cate Rickard Barr, senior art director;Scott Stewart,vice president managing director sales;Diane Wenckebach,senior marketing manager;as well as Kim Adams,Heather Baxley,William Christy,Doug Easton,tani hasegawa, Cara Murphy,Ellen Pettengell,Kathryn Stewart,and Joy Westberg.
I am also deeply grateful to the following for their significant contributions to the 13th edition of Art through the Ages:Joan Keyes, Dovetail Publishing Services;Ida May Norton,copy editor;Sarah Evertson and Stephen Forsling,photo researchers;Pete Shanks and Jon Peck,accuracy readers;Pat Lewis,proofreader;John Pierce, Thompson Type;Rick Stanley,Digital Media Inc.,U.S.A;Don Larson, Mapping Specialists;Anne Draus,Scratchgravel;and Cindy Geiss, Graphic World.I also wish to acknowledge my debt to Edward Tufte for an illuminating afternoon spent discussing publication design and production issues and for his invaluable contribution to the creation ofthe scales that accompany all reproductions ofpaintings, sculptures,and other artworks in this edition.
Finally,I owe thanks to my colleagues at Boston University and to the thousands ofstudents and the scores ofteaching fellows in my art history courses during the past three decades.From them I have learned much that has helped determine the form and content of Art through the Ages and made it a much better book than it otherwise might have been.
Fred S.Kleiner
I-1 King on horseback with attendants,from Benin,Nigeria,ca.1550–1680.Bronze,1 7 1 –2 high.Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York (Michael C.Rockefeller Memorial Collection,gift ofNelson A.Rockefeller).
This African artist used hierarchy of scale to distinguish the relative rank of the figures, making the king the largest. The sculptor created the relief by casting (pouring bronze into a mold).
INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS ART HISTORY?
Except when referring to the modern academic discipline,people do not often juxtapose the words “art”and “history.”They tend to think ofhistory as the record and interpretation ofpast human actions,particularly social and political actions.Most think ofart,quite correctly,as part ofthe present— as something people can see and touch.Ofcourse,people cannot see or touch history’s vanished human events,but a visible,tangible artwork is a kind ofpersisting event.One or more artists made it at a certain time and in a specific place,even ifno one today knows just who,when,where,or why.Although created in the past,an artwork continues to exist in the present,long surviving its times.The first painters and sculptors died 30,000 years ago,but their works remain,some ofthem exhibited in glass cases in museums built only a few years ago.
Modern museum visitors can admire these objects from the remote past—and countless others humankind has produced over the millennia—without any knowledge ofthe circumstances that led to the creation ofthose works.The beauty or sheer size ofan object can impress people,the artist’s virtuosity in the handling ofordinary or costly materials can dazzle them,or the subject depicted can move them. Viewers can react to what they see,interpret the work in the light oftheir own experience,and judge it a success or a failure.These are all valid responses to a work ofart.But the enjoyment and appreciation of artworks in museum settings are relatively recent phenomena,as is the creation ofartworks solely for museum-going audiences to view.
Today,it is common for artists to work in private studios and to create paintings,sculptures,and other objects commercial art galleries will offer for sale.Usually,someone the artist has never met will purchase the artwork and display it in a setting the artist has never seen.This practice is not a new phenomenon in the history ofart—an ancient potter decorating a vase for sale at a village market stall probably did not know who would buy the pot or where it would be housed—but it is not at all typical.In fact,it is exceptional.Throughout history,most artists created paintings,sculptures,and other objects for specific patrons and settings and to fulfill a specific purpose,even iftoday no one knows the original contexts ofmost ofthose works.Museum visitors can appreciate the visual and tactile qualities ofthese objects,but they cannot understand why they were made or why they appear as they do without knowing the circumstances oftheir creation.Art appreciation does not require knowledge ofthe historical context ofan artwork (or a building).Art history does.
Thus,a central aim ofart history is to determine the original context ofartworks.Art historians seek to achieve a full understanding not only ofwhy these “persisting events”ofhuman history look the way they do but also ofwhy the artistic events happened at all.What unique set ofcircumstances gave rise to the erection ofa particular building or led an individual patron to commission a certain artist to fashion a singular artwork for a specific place? The study ofhistory is therefore vital to art history.And art history is often very important to the study of history.Art objects and buildings are historical documents that can shed light on the peoples who made them and on the times oftheir creation in a way other historical documents cannot.Furthermore,artists and architects can affect history by reinforcing or challenging cultural values and practices through the objects they create and the structures they build.Thus,the history ofart and architecture is inseparable from the study ofhistory,although the two disciplines are not the same.
The following pages introduce some ofthe distinctive subjects art historians address and the kinds ofquestions they ask,and explain some ofthe basic terminology they use when answering these questions.Readers armed with this arsenal ofquestions and terms will be ready to explore the multifaceted world ofart through the ages.
ART HISTORY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Art historians study the visual and tangible objects humans make and the structures humans build.From the earliest Greco-Roman art critics on,scholars have studied objects that their makers consciously manufactured as “art”and to which the artists assigned formal titles. But today’s art historians also study a vast number ofobjects that their creators and owners almost certainly did not consider to be “works of art.”That is certainly true for many ofthe works examined in this book.Art historians,however,generally ask the same kinds ofquestions about what they study,whether they employ a restrictive or expansive definition ofart.
The Questions Art Historians Ask
HOW OLD IS IT? Before art historians can construct a history ofart,they must be sure they know the date ofeach work they study. Thus,an indispensable subject ofart historical inquiry is chronology, the dating ofart objects and buildings.Ifresearchers cannot determine a monument’s age,they cannot place the work in its historical context.Art historians have developed many ways to establish,or at least approximate,the date ofan artwork.
Physical evidence often reliably indicates an object’s age.The material used for a statue,painting,or vase—bronze,stone,or porcelain,to name only a few—may not have been invented before a certain time,indicating the earliest possible date someone could have fashioned the work.Or artists may have ceased using certain materials—such as specific kinds ofinks and papers for drawings— at a known time,providing the latest possible dates for objects made ofthose materials.Sometimes the material (or the manufacturing technique) ofan object or a building can establish a very precise date ofproduction or construction.
Documentary evidence can help pinpoint the date ofan object or building when a dated written document mentions the work.
Internal evidence can play a significant role in dating an artwork.A painter might have depicted an identifiable person or a kind ofhairstyle,clothing,or furniture fashionable only at a certain time.Ifso,the art historian can assign a more accurate date to that painting.
Stylistic evidence is also very important.The analysis of style—an artist’s distinctive manner ofproducing an object—is the art historian’s special sphere.Unfortunately,because it is a subjective assessment,stylistic evidence is by far the most unreliable chronological criterion.Still,art historians find style a very useful tool for establishing chronology.
WHAT
IS ITS
STYLE?
Defining artistic style is one ofthe key elements ofart historical inquiry,although the analysis ofartworks solely in terms ofstyle no longer dominates the field as it once did. Art historians speak ofseveral different kinds ofartistic styles.
Period style refers to the characteristic artistic manner ofa specific time,usually within a distinct culture,such as “Classic Maya”in Mesoamerica or “Southern Song”in China.
Regional style is the term art historians use to describe variations in style tied to geography.Like an object’s date,its provenance, or place oforigin,can significantly determine its character.Very often two artworks from the same place made centuries apart are more similar than contemporaneous works from two different regions.
The different kinds ofartistic styles are not mutually exclusive. For example,an artist’s personal style may change dramatically during a long career.Art historians then must distinguish among the different period styles ofa particular artist.
WHAT IS ITS SUBJECT? Another major concern ofart historians is,ofcourse,subject matter,encompassing the story,or narrative;the scene presented;the action’s time and place;the persons involved;and the environment and its details.Some artworks,such as modern abstract paintings,have no subject,not even a setting.The “subject”is the artwork itself.But when artists represent people, places,or actions,viewers must identify these aspects to achieve complete understanding ofthe work.Art historians traditionally separate pictorial subjects into various categories,such as religious,historical, mythological, genre (daily life),portraiture, landscape (a depiction ofa place), still life (an arrangement ofinanimate objects),and their numerous subdivisions and combinations.
Iconography—literally,the “writing ofimages”—refers both to the content,or subject ofan artwork,and to the study ofcontent in art.By extension,it also includes the study of symbols, images that stand for other images or encapsulate ideas.Artists also may depict figures with unique attributes, such as a scepter,headdress,or costume that identifies a figure as a king (FIG. I-1).Throughout the history ofart, artists also have used personifications—abstract ideas codified in human form.Worldwide,people visualize Liberty as a robed woman with a torch because ofthe fame ofthe colossal statue set up in New York City’s harbor in the 19th century.Even without considering style and without knowing a work’s maker,informed viewers can determine much about the work’s period and provenance by iconographical and subject analysis alone.
WHO MADE IT? Although signing (and dating) works is quite common (but by no means universal) today,in the history ofart countless works exist whose artists remain unknown.Because personal style can play a large role in determining the character ofan artwork,art historians often try to assign,or attribute, anonymous works to known artists.Sometimes they assemble a group ofworks all thought to be by the same person,even though none ofthe objects in the group is the known work ofan artist with a recorded name. Scholars base their attributions on internal evidence,such as the distinctive way an artist draws or carves drapery folds or earlobes.It requires a keen,highly trained eye and long experience to become a connoisseur, an expert in assigning artworks to “the hand”ofone artist rather than another.Attribution is subjective,ofcourse,and
ever open to doubt.At present,for example,international debate rages over attributions to the famous 17th-century Dutch painter Rembrandt.
Sometimes a group ofartists works in the same style at the same time and place.Art historians designate such a group as a school. “School”does not mean an educational institution.The term connotes only chronological,stylistic,and geographic similarity.Art historians speak,for example,ofthe Kano School in 17th-century Japan.
WHO PAID FOR IT? The interest many art historians show in attribution reflects their conviction that the identity ofan artwork’s maker is the major reason the object looks the way it does.For them, personal style is ofparamount importance.But in many times and places,artists had little to say about what form their work would take.They toiled in obscurity,doing the bidding oftheir patrons, those who paid them to make individual works or employed them on a continuing basis.The role ofpatrons in dictating the content and shaping the form ofartworks is also an important subject ofart historical inquiry.
The Words Art Historians Use
Like all specialists,art historians have their own specialized vocabulary.That vocabulary consists ofhundreds ofwords,but certain basic terms are indispensable for describing artworks and buildings of any time and place.They make up the essential vocabulary of formal analysis, the visual analysis ofartistic form.Definitions ofthe most important ofthese art historical terms follow.
FORM AND COMPOSITION Form refers to an object’s shape and structure,either in two dimensions (for example,a figure painted on a silk scroll) or in three dimensions (such as a statue carved from a stone block).Two forms may take the same shape but may differ in their color,texture,and other qualities. Composition refers to how an artist organizes (composes) forms in an artwork,either by placing shapes on a flat surface or by arranging forms in space.
MATERIAL AND TECHNIQUE To create art forms,artists shape materials (pigment,clay,stone,gold,and many more) with tools (pens,brushes,chisels,and so forth).Each ofthe materials and tools available has its own potentialities and limitations.Part ofall artists’creative activity is to select the medium and instrument most suitable to the artists’purpose.The processes artists employ,such as applying paint to silk with a brush,and the distinctive,personal ways they handle materials constitute their technique. Form,material,and technique interrelate and are central to analyzing any work ofart.
LINE Among the most important elements defining an artwork’s shape or form is line. A line can be understood as the path ofa point moving in space,an invisible line ofsight.More commonly,however, artists and architects make a line tangible by drawing (or chiseling) it on a plane, a flat surface.A line may be very thin,wirelike,and delicate. It may be thick and heavy.Or it may alternate quickly from broad to narrow,the strokes jagged or the outline broken.When a continuous line defines an object’s outer shape,art historians call it a contour line.
COLOR Light reveals all colors.Light in the world ofthe painter and other artists differs from natural light.Natural light,or sunlight, is whole or additive light. As the sum ofall the wavelengths composing the visible spectrum, natural light may be disassembled or fragmented into the individual colors ofthe spectral band.The painter’s light in art—the light reflected from pigments and objects—is subtractive light. Paint pigments produce their individual colors by reflecting a segment ofthe spectrum while absorbing all the rest.Green pigment,
for example,subtracts or absorbs all the light in the spectrum except that seen as green.
TEXTURE The term texture refers to the quality ofa surface,such as rough or shiny.Art historians distinguish between true texture,or the tactile quality ofthe surface,and represented texture,as when painters depict an object as having a certain texture even though the pigment is the true texture.Texture is,ofcourse,a key determinant of any sculpture’s character.A viewer’s first impulse is usually to handle a piece ofsculpture—even though museum signs often warn “Do not touch!”Sculptors plan for this natural human response,using surfaces varying in texture from rugged coarseness to polished smoothness. Textures are often intrinsic to a material,influencing the type ofstone, wood,clay,or metal sculptors select.
SPACE,MASS,AND VOLUME Space is the bounded or boundless “container”ofobjects.For art historians,space can be the literal three-dimensional space occupied by a statue or a vase or contained within a room or courtyard.Or space can be illusionistic, as when painters depict an image (or illusion) ofthe three-dimensional spatial world on a two-dimensional surface.
Mass and volume describe three-dimensional objects and space. In both architecture and sculpture,mass is the bulk,density,and weight ofmatter in space.Yet the mass need not be solid.It can be the exterior form ofenclosed space.Mass can apply to a solid wood or stone statue,to a mosque or a Buddhist temple—architectural shells enclosing sometimes vast spaces—and to a hollow metal statue or baked clay pot.Volume is the space that mass organizes,divides,or encloses.It may be a building’s interior spaces,the intervals between a structure’s masses,or the amount ofspace occupied by threedimensional objects such as sculpture,pottery,or furniture.Volume and mass describe both the exterior and interior forms ofa work of art—the forms ofthe matter ofwhich it is composed and the spaces immediately around the work and interacting with it.
CARVING AND CASTING Sculptural technique falls into two basic categories, subtractive and additive.Carving is a subtractive technique.The final form is a reduction ofthe original mass ofa block ofstone,a piece ofwood,or another material.Wooden statues were once tree trunks,and stone statues began as blocks pried from mountains.All sculptors ofstone or wood cut away (subtract) “excess material.”When they finish,they “leave behind”the statue.
In additive sculpture,the artist builds up the forms,usually in clay around a framework,or armature. Or a sculptor may fashion a mold, a hollow form for shaping,or casting, a fluid substance such as bronze (FIG. I-1).
RELIEF SCULPTURE Statues that exist independent ofany architectural frame or setting and that viewers can walk around are freestanding sculptures,or sculptures in the round, whether the artist produced the piece by carving or casting.In relief sculpture,the subjects project from the background but remain part ofit.In highrelief sculpture,the images project boldly.In the Benin plaque illustrated on page xiv (FIG. I-1),the reliefis so high that not only do the forms cast shadows on the background,but some parts are even in the round.In low relief, or bas-relief, the projection is slight.Relief sculpture,like sculpture in the round,can be produced either by carving or casting.
ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS Buildings are groupings ofenclosed spaces and enclosing masses.People experience architecture both visually and by moving through and around it,so they perceive architectural space and mass together.Architects can represent
these spaces and masses graphically in several ways,including as plans,sections,elevations,and cutaway drawings.
A plan, essentially a map ofa floor,shows the placement ofa structure’s masses and,therefore,the spaces they circumscribe and enclose.A section, like a vertical plan,depicts the placement ofthe masses as ifsomeone cut through the building along a plane.Drawings showing a theoretical slice across a structure’s width are lateral sections. Those cutting through a building’s length are longitudinal sections.An elevation drawing is a head-on view ofan external or internal wall.A cutaway combines in a single drawing an exterior view with an interior view ofpart ofa building.
This overview ofthe art historian’s vocabulary is not exhaustive, nor have artists used only painting,drawing,sculpture,and architecture as media over the millennia.Ceramics,jewelry,and textiles are just some ofthe numerous other arts.All ofthem involve highly specialized techniques described in distinct vocabularies.As in this introductory chapter,new terms are in italics where they first appear. The comprehensive Glossary at the end ofthe book contains definitions ofall italicized terms.
DIFFERENT WAYS OF SEEING
Even a cursory look at the works illustrated in this book will quickly reveal that throughout history,artists have created an extraordinary variety ofworks for a multitude ofdifferent purposes.Despite this diversity,the art produced by most non-Western artists differs from art produced in the Western world by the absence oftwo ofthe most characteristic ways that Western artists have used to represent people,objects,and places since the Greeks pioneered them a halfmillennium before the Common Era—perspective and foreshortening.
PERSPECTIVE AND FORESHORTENING
Perspective is a device to create the illusion ofdepth or space on a two-dimensional surface.The French painter Claude Lorrain (1600–1682) employed several perspectival devices in Embarkation ofthe Queen ofSheba (FIG I-2),a painting ofa biblical episode set in a 17thcentury European harbor with a Roman ruin in the left foreground. For example,the figures and boats on the shoreline are much larger than those in the distance.Decreasing the size ofan object makes it
I-2 Claude Lorrain, Embarkation ofthe Queen ofSheba, 1648.Oil on canvas,4 10 6 4 .National Gallery,London.
To create the illusion of a deep landscape, Claude Lorrain employed perspective, reducing the size of and blurring the most distant forms. Also, all diagonal lines converge on a single point.
ft.
5 1 5 –8 5 7 7 –8 .MOA Art Museum,Shizuoka-ken.
appear farther away.Also,the top and bottom ofthe port building at the painting’s right side are not parallel horizontal lines,as they are in a real building.Instead,the lines converge beyond the structure, leading viewers’eyes toward the hazy,indistinct sun on the horizon. These perspectival devices—the reduction offigure size,the convergence ofdiagonal lines,and the blurring ofdistant forms—have been familiar features ofWestern art for 2500 years.But it is important to note at the outset that all kinds ofperspective are only pictorial conventions,even when one or more types ofperspective may be so common in a given culture that people,including most readers ofthis book,accept them as “natural”or as “true”means ofrepresenting the natural world.
In White and Red Plum Blossoms (FIG. I-3),a Japanese landscape painting on two folding screens, Ogata Korin (1658–1716) used none ofthese Western perspective conventions.He showed the two plum trees as seen from a position on the ground,but viewers look down on the stream between them from above.Less concerned with locating the trees and stream in space than with composing shapes on a surface,the painter played the water’s gently swelling curves against the jagged contours ofthe branches and trunks.Neither the French nor the Japanese painting can be said to project “correctly”what viewers “in fact”see.One painting is not a “better”picture ofthe world than the other.The European and Asian artists simply approached the problem ofpicture-making differently.
Artists also represent single figures in space in varying ways. When the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) painted Lion Hunt (FIG. I-4),he used foreshortening for all the hunters and animals—that is,he represented their bodies at angles to the picture plane.When in life one views a figure at an angle,the body appears to contract as it extends back in space.Foreshortening is a kind of perspective.It produces the illusion that one part ofthe body is farther away than another,even though all the forms are on the same surface.Especially noteworthy in Lion Hunt are the gray horse at the
left,seen from behind with the bottom ofits left rear hooffacing viewers and most ofits head hidden by its rider’s shield,and the fallen hunter at the painting’s lower right corner,whose barely visible legs and feet recede into the distance.
Like the Japanese painter (FIG. I-3),the African sculptor who depicted the Benin King on horseback with his attendants (FIG. I-1) did not employ any ofthe Western conventions seen in the Rubens painting (FIG. I-4).Although the Rubens painting and the Benin plaque are ofapproximately the same date,the African figures are all in the foreground,stand (or sit) in upright positions,and face the viewer directly.The sculptor represented nothing at an angle.The viewer even looks at the horse head-on and sees only its two front legs and head.Once gain,neither approach to picture-making is the “correct”manner.The artists’strikingly divergent styles reflect the significantly different societies of17th-century Europe and Africa.
PROPORTION AND SCALE
The Rubens painting and the Benin reliefalso differ markedly in the artists’treatment ofporportion and scale. Proportion concerns the relationships (in terms of size) ofthe parts ofpersons,buildings,or objects.People can judge “correct proportions”intuitively (“that statue’s head seems the right size for the body”).Or proportion can be a mathematical relationship between the size ofone part ofan artwork or building and the other parts within the work.Proportion in art implies using a module, or basic unit ofmeasure.When an artist or architect uses a formal system ofproportions,all parts ofa building,body,or other entity will be fractions or multiples ofthe module.A module might be a column’s diameter,the height ofa human head,or any other component whose dimensions can be multiplied or divided to determine the size ofthe work’s other parts.
In certain times and places,artists have formulated canons, or systems,of“correct”or “ideal”proportions for representing human figures,constituent parts ofbuildings,and so forth.In ancient Greece,
I-3 Ogata Korin, White and Red Plum Blossoms, Edo period,ca.1710–1716.Pair oftwofold screens.Ink,color,and gold leafon paper,each screen
Ogata Korin was more concerned with creating an interesting composition of shapes on a surface than with locating objects in space. Asian artists rarely employed Western perspective.
I-4 Peter Paul Rubens, Lion Hunt, 1617–1618.Oil on canvas,8 2 12 5 .Alte Pinakothek,Munich. Foreshortening—the representation of a figure or object at an angle to the picture plane—is a common device in Western art for creating the illusion of depth. Foreshortening is a type of perspective.
many sculptors devised canons ofproportions so strict and allencompassing that they calculated the size ofevery body part in advance,even the fingers and toes,according to mathematical ratios.
In other cases,artists have used disproportion to focus attention on one body part (often the head) or to single out a group member (usually the leader).These intentional “unnatural”discrepancies in proportion constitute what art historians call hierarchy ofscale, the enlarging ofelements considered the most important.On the Benin plaque (FIG. I-1),the sculptor enlarged all the heads for emphasis and also varied the size ofeach figure according to its social status. Central,largest,and therefore most important is the Benin king, mounted on horseback.The horse has been a symbol ofpower and wealth in many societies from prehistory to the present.That the Benin king is disproportionately larger than his horse,contrary to nature,further aggrandizes him.Two large attendants fan the king. Other figures ofsmaller size and status at the Benin court stand on the king’s left and right and in the plaque’s upper corners.One tiny figure next to the horse is almost hidden from view beneath the king’s feet.In contrast,in the Rubens painting (FIG. I-4),no figure is larger than any other.
One problem that students ofart history—and professional art historians too—confront when studying illustrations in art history books is that although the relative sizes offigures and objects in a painting or sculpture are easy to discern,it is impossible to determine the absolute size ofthe works reproduced because they all ap-
pear at approximately the same size on the page.Readers of Art through the Ages can learn the size ofall artworks from the dimensions given in the captions and,more intuitively,from the scales that appear—for the first time in this 13th edition—at the lower left or right corner ofthe illustration.
ART AND CULTURE
The history ofart can be a history of artists and their works,ofstyles and stylistic change,ofmaterials and techniques,ofimages and themes and their meanings,and ofcontexts and cultures and patrons.The best art historians analyze artworks from many viewpoints.But no art historian (or scholar in any other field),no matter how broad-minded in approach and no matter how experienced,can be truly objective.Like artists,art historians are members ofa society,participants in its culture.How can scholars (and museum visitors and travelers to foreign locales) comprehend cultures unlike their own? They can try to reconstruct the original cultural contexts ofartworks,but they are limited by their distance from the thought patterns ofthe cultures they study and by the obstructions to understanding—the assumptions,presuppositions,and prejudices peculiar to their own culture—their own thought patterns raise.Art historians may reconstruct a distorted picture ofthe past because ofculture-bound blindness.
A single instance underscores how differently people ofdiverse cultures view the world and how various ways ofseeing can cause sharp differences in how artists depict the world.Illustrated here are
two contemporaneous portraits (FIG I-5) ofa 19th-century Maori chieftain—one by an Englishman, John Sylvester (active early 19th century),and the other by the New Zealand chieftain himself, Te Pehi Kupe (d.1829).Both reproduce the chieftain’s facial tattooing.The European artist (FIG. I-5, left) included the head and shoulders and underplayed the tattooing.The tattoo pattern is one aspect ofthe likeness among many,no more or less important than the chieftain’s European attire.Sylvester also recorded his subject’s momentary glance toward the right and the play oflight on his hair, fleeting aspects that have nothing to do with the figure’s identity.
In contrast,Te Pehi Kupe’s self-portrait (FIG. I-5, right)—made during a trip to Liverpool,England,to obtain European arms to take back to New Zealand—is not a picture ofa man situated in space and bathed in light.Rather,it is the chieftain’s statement ofthe supreme importance ofthe tattoo design that symbolizes his rank among his
people.Remarkably,Te Pehi Kupe created the tattoo patterns from memory,without the aid ofa mirror.The splendidly composed insignia,presented as a flat design separated from the body and even from the head,is Te Pehi Kupe’s image ofhimself.Only by understanding the cultural context ofeach portrait can viewers hope to understand why either representation appears as it does.
As noted at the outset,the study ofthe context ofartworks and buildings is one ofthe central concerns ofart historians. Art through the Ages: Non-Western Perspectives seeks to present a history ofart and architecture in Asia,the Islamic world,the Americas,Oceania, and Africa that will help readers understand not only the subjects, styles,and techniques ofpaintings,sculptures,buildings,and other art forms created in those parts ofthe world from the earliest times to the present but also their cultural and historical contexts.That story now begins.
I-5 Left: John Henry Sylvester, Portrait ofTe Pehi Kupe, 1826.Watercolor,8
4 .National Library ofAustralia,Canberra (Rex Nan Kivell Collection). Right: Te Pehi Kupe, Self-Portrait, 1826.From Leo Frobenius, The Childhood ofMan (New York:J.B.Lippincott,1909).
These strikingly different portraits of the same Maori chief reveal how differently Western and non-Western artists “see” a subject. Understanding the cultural context of artworks is vital to art history.
An early example of Buddhist architecture, the chaitya hall at Karle is carved out of the living rock. It has a pillared ambulatory that allows worshipers to circumambulate the stupa in the apse of the cave.
1
SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA BEFORE 1200
South and Southeast Asia is a vast geographic area comprising,among others,the nations ofIndia,Pakistan,Sri Lanka,Thailand,Vietnam,Cambodia,Bangladesh,and Indonesia (MAP 1-1).Not surprisingly,the region’s inhabitants display tremendous cultural and religious diversity.The people ofIndia alone speak more than 20 different major languages.Those spoken in the north belong to the Indo-European language family,whereas those in the south form a completely separate linguistic family called Dravidian. The art ofSouth and Southeast Asia is equally diverse—and very ancient.When Alexander the Great and his army reached India in 326 BCE,the civilization they encountered was already more than two millennia old.The remains ofthe first cities in the Indus Valley predate the palaces ofHomer’s Trojan War heroes by a millennium.Covered in this chapter are the art and architecture ofSouth and Southeast Asia from their beginnings almost five millennia ago through the 12th centur y.Chapter 2 treats the later art ofthe region up to the present day.
INDIA AND PAKISTAN
In the third millennium BCE,a great civilization arose over a wide geographic area along the Indus River in Pakistan and extended into India as far south as Gujarat and east beyond Delhi.Archaeologists have dubbed this early South Asian culture the Indus Civilization.
Indus Civilization
The Indus Civilization flourished from about 2600 to 1500 BCE,and evidence indicates there was active trade during this period between the peoples ofthe Indus Valley and Mesopotamia.The most important excavated Indus sites are Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.These early,fully developed cities featured streets oriented to compass points and multistoried houses built ofcarefully formed and precisely laid kilnbaked bricks.But in sharp contrast to the contemporaneous civilizations ofMesopotamia and Egypt,no surviving Indus building has yet been identified as a temple or a palace.
Peshawar
Harappa
GANDHARA PUNJAB
Mohenjodaro
Sea
(Bombay)
Mumbai Elephanta
Delhi Mathura
Yamuna R.
Lumbini
Khajuraho
Udayagiri
Ajanta
Karle
W
Kushinagara Sanchi
Ganges R
Sarnath
Barabar Hills TIBET
Deogarh
Deccan Plateau
Krishna R.
Badami Chennai (Madras)
Patna (Pataliputra)
Bodh Gaya
Dhauli
Arabian Sea Bay of Bengal
Mamallapuram
Thanjavur
Punjai Polonnaruwa
SRI LANKA (CEYLON)
South Asia Southeast Asia
MAP 1-1 South and Southeast Asian sites before 1200.
(BURMA)
South China Sea
Angkor Prasat Andet
Andaman Sea
MOHENJO-DARO The Indus cities boasted one ofthe world’s first sophisticated systems ofwater supply and sewage.Throughout Mohenjo-daro,hundreds ofwells provided fresh water to homes that featured some ofthe oldest recorded private bathing areas and toilet facilities with drainage into public sewers.In the heart ofthe city stood the so-called Great Bath,a complex ofrooms centered on a sunken brick pool (FIG 1-2) 39 feet long,23 feet wide,and 8 feet
1-2 Great Bath,Mohenjo-daro,Pakistan, ca.2600–1900 bce.
The Indus cities of the third millennium BCE had sophisticated water-supply and sewage systems, which made possible this brick complex used for ritual bathing of a kind still practiced in South Asia today.
deep.The builders made the pool watertight by sealing the joints between the bricks with bitumen,an asphaltlike material also used in Mesopotamia.The bath probably was not a purely recreational facility but rather a place for ritual bathing ofthe kind still practiced in the region today.
Excavators have discovered surprisingly little art from the longlived Indus Civilization,and all ofthe objects found are small.
