ART APPRECIATION | Marquez, C.A.

CHAPTER IV
ASIAN ART

At the end of this chapter, students are expected to:

1. characterize the visual arts of ancient India, China, and Japan;
2. identify the underlying historical and philosophical underpinnings
of ancient Asian art;
3. document and annotate important ancient Asian art.

PART I. INDIAN ART

Painting
According to Stungkel (2011), very little number of paintings survived
from the third century B.C.E to the thirteenth century C.E. He added that
“nearly all the works that survived were religious expression and intent. Art
was not for the sake of individual achievement and recognition. It had a
predominantly public function that was mainly spiritual: to make gods and
the cosmos manifest to the senses. The purpose of sculpture, painting, and
architecture was to provide gods with recognizable outer forms, which weak
devotees needed to move themselves along spiritually, but the emphasis was
always on what is meant rather than on what is seen”.

There were a lot of Indian paintings that can be seen from natural and
man-made caves. The many
colorful and diverse murals in
Ajanta Caves, containing 29
rock-cut temples, is a
manifestation of an integral and
extremely valuable addition to
beautiful paintings for it houses
the oldest known Indian cave
paintings dating back from 2nd
century B.C. The Armamalai
Cave, a natural cave, also
contained more paintings which
have been just known only
relatively recently in the late
1960s to early 1970s. There
were also paintings in the Ellora
Caves, Elephanta Caves,
Maladipatti Caves, Bhimbetka
Rock Shelters, and Sittanavasal Mural in Ajanta Caves
Caves, to name some. The Source: wordmondo.co
artworks in the Ellora Caves

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were said to have marked the end of the ancient period in the Indian Art and
the beginning of medieval art. These cave paintings were mainly made in
fresco and tempera techniques; “but no less important was preparation of
surface and laying the plaster” (Wondermondo, 2010).

Sculpture
Sculptural styles and forms are governed by tradition. There were no
innovations since these were avoided. Stungkel (2011) described Indian
sculpture in the following light:

For images of men and women, whether gods or mortals, narrow

conventions of physical type were followed after the Gupta period.
Men have a wide chest and shoulders, a thin waist, smooth,
round limbs, a little roll of stomach flesh over a belt or sash, but
no anatomical definition of musculature of the sort one sees in
Western Renaissance sculpture. Women usually have broad
hips, large, firm, spherical breasts, alluding to sexual energy
(shakti), a sinuous “three bend” posture, achieved with tilts at
the neck, shoulders, and hips, with a slight protrusion in the
lower abdomen, and lots of jewelry. Also evident is a pronounced
contrapposto in the posture of standing figures—one leg bent, the
other straight, indicating the distribution of weight and forces in
a free-standing figure.

A good example of the above

description is the wall sculptures of a temple
in Khajuraho in the modern-day state of
Madhya Pradesh. Also noteworthy in Indian
sculpture is that it is mostly used in
adorning temples and shrines so much so
that cult images were needed for sanctuaries
and sculptural forms were placed at
entrances to acknowledge a resident god or
to afford protection from evil forces.
Furthermore, “Façades of cave temples in
particular show their indebtedness to forms
Mithuna Figures, carved from wood. The option of using stone
Khajuraho without embellishment to build designed
Source: ancient.eu edifices was never realized. Architecture and
sculpture merged as the same craft”
(Stungkel, 2011). It should also be noted that wood was used as a building
material for female deities and stones and bricks were widely used for male
gods.

Architecture
According to Stungkel (2011), some of the general features of Indian
architectural forms can be summarized from Ashoka’s times to the 13th

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century C.E: “Forms were limited to reliquary stupas, rock-cut temples

(chaitya, or worship halls) both in cliff sides and in the open with monk’s cells
(viharas), and freestanding temples in two basic styles—northern and
southern. At first temples were built from wood, which was replaced almost
everywhere by stone from the end of the Gupta period (600 C.E.). Rock-cut
sanctuaries, which betray their debt to wood construction, came mostly to an
end and were displaced by freestanding structures”.

He also mentioned that there were religious meanings, traditional

expectations, and a mythological background in every phase, task, design
issue and choice of materials in temple building. Beauty of architectural sites
is therefore defined along these standards. There has to be therefore,
purification of an appropriate site, development of a floor plan or sacred
diagram, which is also called mandala and attention to relative proportions
of temple parts are requirements in construction. In addition, “Hindu temples
are complex structures with much stylistic variation” and post and lintel were
the basic structural system.

Stungkel (2012) further described:

The arch was neglected perhaps because curves are too

active and suggestive of movement. The tranquility and
humility of flat, static slabs resting on beams was
preferred. Quarried blocks of granite or sandstone, the
two most common choices of material, were laid one on
top of the other with no mortar. The choice of stone would
affect problems and outcomes of sculptural work outside
the temple. Obviously granite is more durable but
tougher to work than sandstone, which invites chiseled
refinements. Brick was also used. There was a division of
leadership as well as labor in construction. An architect-
craftsman would handle issues of design and conformity
to tradition, and a supervisor would look after practical
matters of assembling materials and guiding a multitude
of workmen in their tasks.

Examples of Indian architectural

sites are Kailasanatha Temple in Ellora,
Khandariya temple in Khajuraho and the
Lingaraja Temple in Bhuvaneshara.

Rock Cut Temple in Ellora Caves

Source. ancient.eu

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PART II. CHINESE ART

Calligraphy and Painting

Chinese calligraphy and painting may overlap as one art. As a matter
of fact, “writing with brush and ink defined the scholar and was a necessary
component of painting”. It was also believed that man’s character and
physical appearance can be revealed through the form and rhythm of his
ideographs as much as his personality and state of mind can be revealed
through landscape painting. However, calligraphy was more pervasive than
painting.

Calligraphy was common to many places inasmuch as it can be seen in

homes, shops, palaces, and even temples. There is calligraphy on silk, paper,
stone, metal, wood, and ceramic. Brush, ink, inkstone, and silk or paper are
said to be the Four Treasures of calligraphy and painting. Stungkel (2011)
further added: “The ubiquity and power of calligraphy to elicit pleasure and a
sense of mystery was shared by all traditional Chinese whether literate or not.
It was one of the forces that held millions of Chinese together for centuries in
a vast land.”

Landscape Painting
Landscape painting has been the
dominant form of visual art in China. There
has been no subject for artists that rivaled
landscape after the 10th century. Stungkel
(2011) added that it “had strong Confucian
overtones of reverence for tradition and
reflected Taoist ideas of cosmic energy and
spontaneous activity believed to flow from a
brushstroke”. Landscape painting included
hills, valleys, cliffs, lakes, ponds, rivers,
waterfalls, and mountain ranges. It also
included plants and animal life with human
inhabitants in the background that are
almost lost.

Landscape paintings were also not

hung in galleries or even painted on walls and
ceilings. There were landscape paintings in
hanging scrolls, hand scrolls, and album
leaves. Hanging scrolls and hand scrolls were
Shaded Dwellings among
rolled up, and can be put away when it is not
Streams and Mountains
being viewed. It can be rolled open again if a
by Dong Qichang
person wishes to contemplate. Hand scrolls
Source: metmeseum.org

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were rolled from right to left and rerolled from left to right so that the viewer
can see a continuous unfolding of the scene. The hanging scroll can be
displayed on a wall, unrolled from the top and there were weights at the
bottom. The album leaf is displayed in collections that are bound like a book
so that the viewer can see a succession of scenes by turning the folios.
Stungkel (2011) also said that “Landscape scenes were also painted on fans,
screens, robes, and pottery, but those kinds of media were not usually
preferred by literati artists”.

Landscape painting, together with calligraphy, has been practiced and

considered as an art form because of three reasons. The first was that “the
literati class was consolidated in the Tang and Sung periods, which meant a
shared view of the world acquired through the study of classical literature, a
status usually conferred by the examination system, and skills in calligraphy
as part of the scholar’s training”. Hence, it was as early as the Tang dynasty
that scholars dominated the landscape painting, with the belief that painting
in itself is helpful for personal cultivation.

The second reason was the fact that scholars had long experience with
Buddhism in mountains and forests. They stayed in temples that were built
in remote places most especially in summit of mountains. Hence, mountain
landscapes were a spiritual home where humans and nature shared affinity
with Tao, especially for the Taoist-Buddhist and the landscape painter.

Third reason can be clearly captured in the following explanation of

Stungkel (2011):

Neo-Confucian philosophy inspired a new way of seeing

nature, the idea that reality could be understood as the
li (principle) of things grasped by “the investigation of
things.” Painting became an agent of such investigation.
Each of the various components of Neo-Confucian
thought—Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, yin-yang
cosmology—had an influence. From philosophical
Taoism came the unity and spontaneity of the world, the
oneness of man with nature. Effects of this doctrine on
the landscape painter included a deep affinity with the
external world of mountains, streams, forests, and
creatures. Plants and animals were to be depicted alive—
no dead animals, cut flowers, or plucked fruit so familiar
in Western still life.

Sculpture
According to Siren, in Chinese art, “The human form was never a motif
of paramount importance to them. Their greatest sculptures were not done
as glorifications of individual beauty, of physical movement, or other motives
based on material experience. Even when they introduced elements of form

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drawn from the objective world, their creations were not done in competition
with the actual living organisms, but as projections from their own minds
intended to express or evoke ideas of a more general or spiritual scope”.

He further added:

Their art was essentially conventional. The sculptors felt

no ambition to break the traditional symbols or to display
some kind of personal originality, but sought rather to
enter into the accepted formulae as completely as
possible, and to fill them with the greater significance
which depends on the intimate connection between the
single individual and the universal life. We know this type
of art from some of the medieval sculpture of Europe, but
it was carried further in China; the Chinese were quite
free from the tendency towards anthropomorphic
idealization so characteristic of European art, and they
had a stronger feeling for the essential unity which
underlies all the changing manifestations of material life.

A number of Chinese sculptures are generally representative of

religious motifs that are Buddhist in origin and not infrequently in human
form. Siren further described, “Buddha and Bodhisattva ideas are expressed
with many variations in the shape of figures placed in postures of symbolic
significance, intended to convey different aspects of a spiritual consciousness
which pervades the whole universe. They are not to be interpreted as
individual beings in the ordinary sense of the word, nor as memory images or
idealizations of actual persons who may have existed at some time or other,
but as portrayals of consciousness or symbolic indications of the successive
stages by which the human nature approaches the divine”.

Although large-scale sculpture

has not survived well in China
(Cartwright, 2017), there are still some
monumental works that stand like the
rock face at the Longmen Caves,
Fengxian temple. Other than this, one of
the most notable that was of life-size
scale was the figures of Shi Huangti’s
Terracotta Army.

Two figures carved from the

rock face at the Longmen Caves
Source: ancient.eu
Architecture
Cartwright (2017) described ancient Chinese Architecture in the
following text:

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Walled compounds, raised pavilions, wooden columns

and panelling, yellow glazed roof tiles, landscaped
gardens, and a careful application of town planning and
use of space are all notable features of the architecture of
ancient China, with many of them still playing an
important part in modern architecture across East Asia.
Architects were influenced by ideas from India and the
Buddhism which originated there, but the buildings of
ancient China remained remarkably constant in
fundamental appearance over the centuries, inspiring
much of the architecture of other neighboring East Asian
states, especially in ancient Japan and Korea.
Unfortunately, few ancient Chinese buildings survive
today, but reconstructions can be made based on clay
models, descriptions in contemporary texts, and
depictions in art such as wall paintings and engraved
bronze vessels.

He added that Chinese architecture has remained constant all

throughout its history. Larger structures like temples, halls, and gate towers
were built on a raised platform compacted earth and faced with brick or stone.
But small private homes of the ancient Chinese were built from dried mud,
rouch stones and wood, and the plan was mostly square, rectangular, or oval.

Moreover, the most

common building type had
regularly spaced timber posts
which were strengthened by
horizontal cross-beam
(Cartwright, 2017); this was
supplemented by Qiyi, Sullivan,
and Silbergeld (2019) by
describing that Chinese
architecture was built chiefly
using timber. Although
Cartwright (2017) said that
there were techniques used by
the Chinese to protect buildings Nanchan Temple
Source: chinadaily.com.cn
from earthquake damage, Qiyi
et al. (2019) stated that very little ancient Chinese architecture had survived.
With this, they described the small main hall of the Nanchan Temple, on
Mount Wutai in Shanxi province as the oldest datable timber building.

Chinese architects had their ideas from India and the Buddhism which
started there. Ancient Buddhist temples, as a matter of fact, have used
dougong, a bracket joining the top of the post and horizontal roof beam, to
support the wooden posts. Developments were done like simplifying the roof

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beams to make the structure lighter, increasing the height of pillars, roofs
made more curved in the corners, and use of decorative tiles and figures such
as dragons at the ends and ridges of roofs. But none of these Buddhist
temples survived today (Cartwright, 2017).

Moreover, the five types of ancient Chinese architecture include

imperial palaces (The Forbidden City), defensive walls (The Great Wall),
pagodas (Big Wild Goose Pagoda), altars and temples (Temple of Heaven), and
mausoleums (Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang).

PART III. JAPANESE ART

Painting
It has been said that Japanese painting started during the Asuka period
from 522-646. The pattern of culture which they had during the 16th century
were not discarded for a new one; but these were developed further by
selecting and adopting the good and attractive in Korea and China into theirs.
For instance, when Buddhism reached Japan, temple paintings were modeled
from mainland China but these were modified. Hence, “it is true that the
course of religious painting in Japan from the 6th to the 14th centuries
followed in a general way Buddhist painting in China. The monochrome
landscape school as brought to Japan by Zen Buddhism is derived from Sung
landscape but becomes quite a different thing in Japan” (Priest, 1953).

Priest (1953) added that Buddhist paintings were hieratic and didactic
and these had survived in the temples of Japan. Moreover, “Japanese
religious paintings included a wonderful tradition of portraiture, and in the
details of the Buddhist paradises and scenes of the life of Buddha, there are
intimations of what we call genre; landscape in backgrounds very early takes
on a local character”.

Hays (2009) mentioned that during

the Heian period (794-1185), yamato-e,
which is an indigenous style, had replaced
Chinese modes of painting. It depicted
scenery around Kyoto. He added, “Along
with this new, native style came two new
formats for painting: the album leaf and the
illustrated handscroll, called emaki. The
Tale of Genji Scrolls (ca. 1120) is the most Scenes from the Tale of Genji
famous emaki”. Source: khanacademy.org

During the Kamakura period (1185-1333), the horizontal story-telling

scroll appeared in Japanese art. It was described that the form of this scroll
was actually not new, but what made it new was the content and how it is

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presented. The presented story is sometimes based on history just like the
Tomo-no-Dainagon.

During the Ashikaga or Muromachi period (1333-1568), monochrome

ink painting that was inspired by the Zen Buddhists was noted to the most
remarkable development. Sesshu, who painted Haboku-Sansui, was the most
famous master who painted ink landscapes. Although painters during this
period usually painted with “trees or temples done in detailed brushwork and
masses of mountains in the background done in ink washes”, they managed
‘with comparatively little detail to give a suggestion of depth, distance, and
great grandeur”. They also painted other forms like birds, plants, priests, and
even holy men.

Priest (1953) also mentioned that “in the Momoyama period (1568-
1615), the powerful shoguns and war lords encouraged the gorgeous form of
decoration for their palaces which is reflected in the present day in the
decorative screens with gold background”. An example of this is Birds and
Flowers of the Four Seasons whose medium was a pair of six-panel folding
screens using ink color, gold, and gold leaf on paper.

Several developments in Japanese art emerged during the Tokugawa or

Edo period (1650-1867) more so that there was a school of decorative painters
that included Korin, Sotatsu, and Koetsu. It was also during this period that
Ukiyo-eh was introduced. It is also referred to as “pictures of the floating
world” that used woodblock prints which were actually one of the first forms
of Japanese art.

Priest (1953) emphasized that what sets Japanese art different by from
other styles influenced by Buddhism was that it was “rigorously simple,
simple in the matters of line, of color, and composition”.

Sculpture
Ortiz et al. (1976) generally stated that
“Japanese art started in Dolmen period when
an imperial court was established in the
province of Yamato” and added that “the first
objects were the haniwas, tomb sculptures
found surrounding the ancient graves”
However, Hays (2009) described that the first
settlers of Japan, who were the Jomon people,
crafted figurines called dogu. “Afterwards, the Haniwa Horse Head
Source: britannica.com
Yayoi people (approximately 300 B.C. to A.D.
300), whose core was a different immigrant group in the beginning of the era,
manufactured copper weapons, bronze bells, and kiln-fired ceramics. Typical
artifacts from the Kofun (Tumulus) period (approximately A.D. 300 to A.D.
710) that followed were bronze mirrors and clay sculptures called haniwa,
which were erected outside of tombs” (Hays, 2009).

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Dogu are prayer figures used for prosperity

and fertility. There are female dogu that have big
butts and hips, others have babies in their arms
and some other female dogu are nude and pregnant;
while some male dogu have beards and big chests.
Hay (2009) added that these were not associated
with agriculture because they appeared in Japan
before agriculture did.

Japanese Hakuho sculpture that was

Shakoki-dogu, 1000-
400 BCE
Source: ancient-origins.net
influenced by the Chinese tang Dynasty was
eventually “rejected because it was considered too
ornamental and excessively decorative for Japanese
tastes” (Hays, 2009). A remarkable sculptural work
that was constructed during the Kamakura period
was the Daibutsu or The Great Buddha.
Constructed in 1252, this 93-ton bronze sculpture
in Nara is the second largest Buddha statue.

Shingon Esoteric Buddhism also considered use of art so much so that

statues that are part of the Kodo Hall of the Toji Temple are particularly well-
known arts. The hall had eight statues that included two mystical myoo
wisdom kings who are known as Taishakuten and a fierce Jikokuten. Zen
Buddhism also had profound influences on Japanese art although Zen had a
disapproval of Buddha images that consequently resulted to the birth of a
new tradition of human portraits and statues that are secularized, which
gained momentum in the next centuries (Hays, 2009).

However, most of the sculptural works in Japan are Buddhist images

made for Buddhist temples. Most of those sculptural works were made from
wood or bronze. At the time Mahayana Buddhism was introduced, artisans
“turned their attention from ceramics and metalwork to Buddhist images,
namely sculptures” that were made mostly by Korean and Chinese
immigrants. If there were images made by the Japanese, these were almost
copied works from Korea and China.

With all these, there are four main types of Buddhist sculptures found
in temples. The first one is the Nyorai, a term used to refer to Buddha. The
second is bosatsu which is also known as bodhisattva, which is used to refer
to saintly entities of the Buddhist tradition. The third is the deities and spirits
such as ten, which is referred to as the heavenly beings or devas. The last is
the myoo, which are referred to as the kings of wisdom and light that serve as
protectors of Buddhism. There are also main images found in Buddhist
temples such as the Shaka (Historical Buddha), Yakushi (Healing Buddha),
Amita (Buddha of the Western Paradise), Dainichi (Cosmic Buddha) and
Maiterya (Buddha of the Future). In addition, the most outstanding works of
Buddhist sculptures are made of wood; and among the different types of such

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are the ichiboku, natabori, and byakudan. Ichiboku are statuary sculptured
works made from a single block of wood. Natabori are hatchet sculptures that
were deliberately left notched with chisel scars. Byakudan are sculptures
made from sandalwood or any other fragrant wood (Hays, 2009).

It was during the Nara period that Japanese sculpture reached its
golden age. During this period, images of Buddha were mostly serene and
made of clay. Sculptors also moved from making two dimensional images into
“startling, almost eerie, realistic works of art”. The Yakushi Trias is said to be
the masterpiece from this period. It can be viewed at the Yakushi temple in
Southern Nara and the Ganjin statue at Nara’s Toshodaiji temple (Hays,
2009).

Among the famous Japanese sculptors were Kokei and Unkei.

Architecture
During the prehistoric times, there were no extant architectural sites
and styles. Architecture was even hardly mentioned even in the oldest
Japanese texts. But research tells that houses had thatched roofs and dirt
floors, but wooden floors were used in regions that had high temperatures
and humidity. When communities grew, so were the residential houses
especially of the local ruling family and even rice storage houses that were in
Sannai-Maruyama in Aomori and the Yoshinogari in Saga. Tombs were
constructed when a centralized administrative system was developed. The
most remarkable was the Daisen-kofun which was the designated tomb of the
Emperor Nintoku.

The oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world are found at Horyu
temple in the Southwest of Nara during the Asuka period. Constructed in the
early 7th century, it has 41 separate buildings. In the 8th century, temple
building was focused at Todaiji in Nara. Todaiji is said to be the most
ambitious religious complex erected in the early centuries of Buddhism in
Japan.

Todaiji Temple
Source: klook.com

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During the Heian period, Japanese Buddhist architecture adopted the

stupa in its Chinese form as a pagoda. Temples were erected in mountains.
It was during this time that Japanese architects used indigenous elements of
design: cypress-bark roofs replaced those of ceramic tiles, and wood planks
were used instead of earthen floors. The shinden zukuri was palatial or
aristocratic mansions which were built during the Heian period especially in
the 10th century. In the Fujiwara period, architectural sites were devoted to
elegant aesthetic pursuits. An example of this is the Amida Hall and the
Phoenix Hall called the Ho-o-do of the Byodoin which is the best example of
Fujiwara Amida halls.

After the Kamakura period, architectural styles were simple and sturdy;
many of the samurai houses were a mixture of shinden-zukuri and turrets or
trenches. Buke-zukuri, which was house for a military family, was similar to
the shinden-zukuri. Changes were applied so that aristocratic families can be
distinguished from the military family. Bukezukuri were made simple and
practical. It was during the Kamakura period that the tea ceremony was
developed and practiced. The tea house was, therefore, constructed following
a rustic style cottage that emphasized natural materials such as bark-covered
logs and woven straw.

It was during the Azuchi-momoyama period that new forms of

architectural styles were developed. The castle and the shoin were developed
as responses to the militaristic climate of the times. The Himeji Castle, also
known as the White Heron Castle, was a defensive structure built to house a
feudal lord and his soldiers specifically during the times of trouble. The
Ohiroma of Nijo Castle is one example of a shoin, which serves as a reception
hall and private study area designed to reflect the relationships of lord and
vassal within a feudal society.

It was during the Edo

period when architectural
styles were simplified. Since
the city of Edo was frequently
destroyed by fire, a simplified
architecture was necessary for
easy reconstruction. It was
then in the 19th century when
Japan was exposed to Western
culture that they were able to
blend Japanese styles with
European architectural styles.
The Giyofu architecture, also
called as pseudo-Western- Giyofu Architecture
Source: hisour.com
style architecture, resembled a
western style but considered Japanese design techniques. It was during the

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Meiji period when this was common but it eventually disappeared when
Western techniques became prevalent (New World Encyclopedia, 2018).

Self-Assessment Questions:
1. How can you describe ancient Indian people in relation to arts?
2. Justify why ancient Chinese people built colossal structures?
3. What makes Japanese art distinct from other ancient Asian
civilizations?

Suggested Activities:
1. Creative outputs: Produce (a) video or brochure featuring paintings,
sculptures and architectures of ancient India, China, and Japan.
2. Art Talk: Present the topic assigned to you through talk shows, radio
broadcasting or mock interviews.
3. Soul and Space Activity:
a. Re-conceptualize an architectural site of an Asian country
assigned to your group. Build miniature buildings using clay
or illustration boards.

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