ARTH183 1st Edition Lecture 2 Outline of Last Lecture I. Early Buddhist ArtA.IntroductionII. BuddhismA. Siddhartha Gautamaa. Life and important sitesb. Teachings/fundamental principles of BuddhismIII. Maurya DynastyA. Ashokaa. “Column Erected by Ashoka”b. “Lion Capital”: Style, Buddhist themesIV. Buddhist Holy Site at SanchiA. Stupa 1/The Great StupaOutline of Current Lecture I. Form, Style, and Function of the Great StupaII. Carvings at the Great StupaA. “The Great Departure:” Form, stylea. Simultaneous narration/continuous narrative, aniconicB. “Tree Goddess:” Form, styleIII. Kushan PeriodA. Iconography of the BuddhaCurrent LectureStupa 1/The Great Stupa: Form, Style, Function“The Great Stupa at Sanchi.” Created ca. 250 BCE, attained current form ca. 50-25 BCE. Earth and sandstone: Solid form with no interior space-worship is performed outside. A railing goes all the way around the stupa, with 4 gates (torana) attached to dog-leg openings built into it; on top of the stupa is a second, square railing containing a mast/column that goes all the waythrough the stupa and down into the earth (reference to concept of Axis mundi). The mast has disc-like “umbrellas” as a symbol of the building’s status (usually see at least 3 of these). The These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.torana and railings were probably originally made of wood but then replaced with stone.-Architectural plan style: The stupa itself is circular, as is the lower railing, but thetop railing is a square; the use of regular, perfect geometric forms is common with both religiousand secular buildings.*Lower railing creates path for circumambulation (the ritual practice of walking around an object of devotion), the primary form of worship at the site; this stupa has 2 levels for circumambulation. Circumambulation in India is done clockwise so that the “cleaner” right side of the body faces the object of worship.*Dog-leg openings in outer circular railing intentionally incorporates svastika (ancient Indian sun symbol, auspicious symbol) form, an element that pre-dates Buddhism similarly to the stupa*Stupa was built with the intent to align it with the cardinal directions, orienting it cosmographicallyCarvings at the Great StupaThere are carvings on the torana and railings of the Great Stupa, primarily the gates: Depictions of auspicious animals, scenes from the life of the Buddha and Buddha’s other lives. There was no 1 single patron, resulting in a somewhat piecemeal look; different people paid money at these sites to have certain things carved (could have been members of the sangha, laypeople, actual workers on the site). The horizontal elements in particular provided a long space to carve a story into.-“The Great Departure.” East gateway, Great Stupa. Stone. H: 21 and 3/16”. Madeca. 50-25 BCE: Title is name for the event of Siddhartha’s departure from his father’s palace withthe aid of various deities to leave silently. An example of simultaneous narration/continuous narrative: The depiction of multiple scenes within a single frame or setting with a character or characters represented more than once.*We can tell the story proceeds from left to right because the horses and figures face to the right. The far left has a palace with a gateway with a horse coming out of it, then the horse repeated multiple times in exactly the same manner (with parasol above) so the viewer can identify that this is the same horse, not 5 different ones*This was made during the aniconic period of Buddhist art; Aniconic=Refers to an absence of representations of something, often a deity, due to proscription or for some other reason. The Buddha is not represented in human form, so some element is used to suggest his presence-here it is the parasol over the horse and the pair of footprints with chakras at the far right. Some historians have theorized that the absence of the Buddha means that this represents a ritual, pageant recreation/performance of a scene from the Buddha’s life rather than the scene itself, but this is generally not believed. *Style= Medium-relief carving (deeply undercut in some areas to createlight/shadow contrast), densely composed, less concerned with creating depth and/or sense of space than fitting in all the narrative components so the viewer can understand what the story is and what’s going on (i.e. function as a didactic, teaching tool)Other forms of Buddhist aniconic representation at the time: Dharma wheel/chakra, footprints with chakras, throne with a pipal tree (known as the Bodhi tree, the kind that Buddhasat under when he achieved enlightenment) are used to represent the Buddha, stupa used as a representation of his death-“Tree Goddess.” East gateway, Great Stupa. Stone. H: 5’. Ca. 50-25 BCE: Representation of a pre-Buddhist fertility figure from an agricultural society, thought to be able to make trees flower and fruit through her touch-here she is intertwined with a mango tree.*Style: Figure is almost fully in the round, dressed in clothing typical of style for both religious and secular at the time; has fairly naturalistic, not stiff pose with attention paid to the rendering of the body.There are various types of stupas that can be found in South Asia:-Dagoba-type stupa, common in Himalayan region; kind of bottle-like, with tall base beneath swelling stupa form-Burmese style; gilded, distinctive narrower shape-Sri Lankan style; commonly covered with wood and then painted white-Kumbum, Tibet; has enormous interior image of the Buddha, a kind of combination between a stupa and a mandala (cosmic diagram showing relations between the deities)-Borobodur, Indonesia; many levels on the outside, stupas on top of stupasKushan Period (late 1 st c. to 3 rd c. CE)Founded by Kujuia Kadphises; the Kushan people are thought to have been pushed out of West China. At its largest exent, the Kushan empire extended into lots of important sites in Northern India and stretched northwest up through Afghanistan. This period sees images of the Buddha in human form for the 1st time emerge in 2 distinct regional styles-Iconography of the Buddha=Symbols, conventions that help us identify a figure of the Buddha; include special marks on his body, hand gestures and postures with specific meanings attached to them, the fact that he is usually represented