A gilt bronze square plaque of a man seated at the center. Around him are people and flowers.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The gilt bronze plaque is flat, square in shape, and colored a yellow-green. At the center, a man is sitting on a pedestal. He is cross-legged and his right hand is bent up. He is flanked by two people standing to his left and right, and one person sitting to the left and right of the pedestal. Each person is dressed in robes and has a ring around their heads. There are flowers in between the people and clouds above them.

Gallery Text

Merchants trading in Silk Road goods, South and Central Asian Buddhist proselytizers, and pilgrims who had traveled to India to study Buddhism at its source brought countless paintings, scriptures, and small bronze sculptures to China and Tibet. These later served as the inspirations for works commissioned by local patrons. Few early Chinese and Tibetan bronze sculptures, and even fewer Indian prototypes, survive, as later generations melted them down to make coins, weapons, or new icons. The fine statues on display here may have been objects of devotion that were set in portable shrines, like the Korean example in the case to the right, for worship in lay people’s homes.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.53.74
Title
Votive Plaque with Seated Buddha Shakyamuni, Attendant Bodhisattvas, and Monks
Classification
Plaques
Work Type
plaque
Date
581 - 618
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Sui dynasty, 581-618
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204421

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1610, Buddhist Sculpture, Buddhism and Early East Asian Buddhist Art
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Gilt bronze with repoussé designs
Technique
Repoussé
Dimensions
H. 15.2 x W. 15.2 x D. 1.8 cm (6 x 6 x 11/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Yamanaka & Co., New York, March 1, 1935] sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (1935-1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.53.74
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Exhibition History

  • S425a: Chinese Gilt Bronze Sculpture, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008
  • Re-View: S228-230 Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/2008 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 1610 Buddhist Art I, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu