tailieunhanh - The Sculpture of Greater India

Kate Flint points to “the development of the visualisation of experience” that continues through the nineteenth century; linking this experience to the “more permanent display of material” in museums and the “growing number of art exhibitions” (3). This development of a “visualisation of experience” is crucial for understanding the reception of classical antiquity during this period. The Greek court at the Crystal Palace in Sydenham, along with the other Fine Arts Courts, is a good example of the desire to make the vision of antiquity corporeal and create an arena through which the past could be physically experienced and. | The Sculpture of Greater India by ASCHWIN LIPPE Associate Curator of Far Eastern Art In the new gallery of Indian sculpture which will be opened on February 24 the Museum s collection enriched by many generous loans is now on display for the first time in many years. It shows a cross section of what Heinrich Zimmer has called one of the most magnificent chapters in the whole history both of the world s art and the world s religion. When we speak of Indian sculpture we do not use the name in its ethnic or political sense but in its widest possible connotation as in the expression Greater India. We cover an area that extends from modern Afghanistan to Vietnam and from Nepal to Indonesia we range in time from the third millennium . to late medieval times. Most of these countries have never been under Indian political domination but they adopted one or the other of the great Indian religions and consequently their art was stimulated and strongly influenced by India. This may justify its inclusion in an Indian gallery. Neither all periods nor all areas of this Indian cultural domain are represented in the new gallery. Nor could the two historical aspects of space and time always be properly related to each other or to the exigencies of display. We have attempted however to show the sequence of time and of stylistic periods in the general direction from east to west along the length of the Dancing apsaras. Rajasthan India XII-XIII century. Height 28 inches Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr. 1942 ON THE cover Bronze statue of Parvati. Southeast India Chola dynasty about goo. Height 27 inches Bequest of Cora Timken Burnett 1957 gallery. The two principal border areas north Pakistan-Afghanistan and Cambodia-Thailand-Indonesia have been allocated the two far ends of the gallery in order to emphasize their distinction from the main body of Indian sculpture proper. All Indian sculpture is religious sculpture. We enter in this gallery therefore a spiritual climate that may