SPEAKER 1: We are here at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York, looking at a monumental sculpture
of a Bodhisattva.
So, Buddha is the main figure we often see.
And there are many Buddhas in Chinese Buddhist art.
There's the historical Buddha, but lots of other figures.
And then there are also Bodhisattvas,
and that's what we're looking at.
And one of the main ways you can distinguish them
is that the Bodhisattva's often heavily adorned,
like this figure is.
SPEAKER 2: A Bodhisattva is an enlightened being
that has chosen not to pursue nirvana,
but to remain with ties to the earthly realm
and secure enlightenment, or release from Samsara, which
is the cycle of rebirth for all sentient beings.
So Bodhisattvas are seen as beings of compassion.
SPEAKER 1: So they've decided to forgo nirvana and be here
for us, for a regular people, to help
us to achieve or own nirvana.
SPEAKER 2: And they're shown to have these worldly ties
through their princely garb.
The iconography of a Buddha is shown in monk's garb,
having relinquished all ties to the earth, all ties
to material things.
So you see the Buddha with the elongated earlobes
and the jewels removed.
Here we see a Bodhisattva in princely robes
and heavily adorned with valuable jewels,
showing their connection still to the earth.
SPEAKER 1: What's funny is that this
is the Bodhisattva of compassion.
And yet, I don't feel a lot of identification with it.
It's very frontal, it's very symmetrical and severe
and kind of abstracted.
And it feels very distant, in that way.
SPEAKER 2: There is a solemness and a serenity,
but there's also a haughtiness to the facial expression
of this image.
SPEAKER 1: Exactly.
He must be about 15 or 20 feet high.
And I imagine it stood in a temple complex.
SPEAKER 2: Yes, it's huge and frontal,
so perhaps it was the main image for worship
in its original location.
SPEAKER 1: And often, these kinds of figures
would be shown in groups within a temple.
And this one is so large that it 's likely
that it was the main figure.
SPEAKER 2: Often, Bodhisattvas are shown flanking Buddhas.
And they'll have the weight on one foot,
turning towards the Buddha that they're flanking.
And this image is presented frontally,
and often this Bodhisattva is attributed
to being Avalokiteshvara, Guanyin,
the Bodhisattva of compassion.
The most popular Bodhisattva for worship in China
under Mahayana type of Buddhism.
SPEAKER 1: One of the ways we would normally
identify a Bodhisattva figure, since there
are many Bodhisattvas representing different ideas,
is by what they're holding.
But unfortunately, this sculpture,
being from the sixth century, has suffered a lot of damage
and its hands are no longer with it.
And so we don't know what it held in its hands.
SPEAKER 2: Right, we don't know what
the attributes may have been.
And Avalokiteshvara, Guanyin in China,
often has the Buddha Amitabha in the crown.
And that's an attribute that distinguishes it and makes
it clear that the iconography is Avalokiteshvara.
But here, the Buddha image is not there.
It's more of a floral crown.
So there is some uncertainty over which
Bodhisattva this actually is.
SPEAKER 1: It's interesting how much we can tell about it,
but how much of it is still really in dispute by scholars.
And the styles of art that we see in art history
are so often connected to the historical circumstances, often
politics, the government.
And we know that the period just before this
was called the Northern Way, which
had a really different style.
SPEAKER 2: Yes, what happened is in the Northern Way, the style
that was predominant was weightless and very linear.
Important examples can be found at the cave temple
complex of Yungang, where in cave six
you would see a Buddha or Bodhisattva image that
shows no attention to the body form, but a lot of attention
to the folds and line of the drapery.
And the shapes are weightless.
SPEAKER 1: So that period known as the Northern
Way is about 50 years before this,
and is a relatively stable time in parts of China--
SPEAKER 2: Particularly in the North, absolutely.
SPEAKER 1: --and then a period of political upheaval follows.
SPEAKER 2: And the two strong dynasties
that emerge in the north are the northern Chi in the east
and the northern Chou in the west.
And this is a very interesting Bodhisattva example,
when you're thinking about that time period.
There are some characteristics here
that really indicate the northern Chi,
but others that indicate the northern Chou.
And granted, there's a lot of overlap
between the styles of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
that come out of these two dynasties.
One thing is this incredible opulence
in terms of the drapery and the jewelry details
that are often associated with the northern Chou.
The other aspect that is northern Chou
is the really square shape to the face,
the block-like features.
Both the northern Chou and the northern Chi
broke in from this Northern Way aesthetic of weightlessness,
and show the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas
with a lot of three-dimensional and geometric form.
SPEAKER 1: This figure is anything but weightless.
SPEAKER 2: Absolutely, and you can
see it's monumental and columnar.
But it has this weight and volume.
We're looking at it the way that it
would have been viewed in the temple.
We would be looking up at it.
And that's why the head is so oversized.
SPEAKER 1: So the artist would have
wanted to make sure we could really see the head.
SPEAKER 2: Yes.
SPEAKER 1: And from far below, one way
to do that is to enlarge the head.
SPEAKER 2: And looking at the facial features in particular,
there is a head at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
that is from Xiangtangshan, a northern Chi site in China.
And if you compare this head, you
can see that this is much more block-like.
But when you look at the lips and the eyes
and other aspects of the facial features,
there is a similarity.
SPEAKER 1: So we're really talking about dynasties,
different historical periods, and different regional styles
emerging in different places.
And art historians really needing
to study each of those places and the art that emerges.
And then comparing and contrasting to date
and to locate a lot of these early figures.
SPEAKER 2: Buddhism had only come to China
a few years earlier from India, and in that a few years,
the styles the developed for Buddhist art
are really dependent on those different regions
and the different dynasties.
And therefore, there's so much change going on.
And this is an interesting example
of that because we see here, this very abrupt break
with the weightless, linear aesthetic of the Northern Way
to this much more volumetric, massive form
that is associated with the northern Chi
and the northern Chou.
The source for this change is often
identified as Gupta in India.
Sensuous Gupta style.
SPEAKER 1: It's really a puzzle--
SPEAKER 2: It is.
SPEAKER 1: --in so many ways.
So many questions.
One thing we know for sure, because we
can see the residue here, is that the sculpture was painted.
And probably painted many times to keep
the color vibrant over the years.
SPEAKER 2: What we're looking at is probably
remnants of Ming dynasty painting, maybe 16th century,
but it would have been originally painted as well.
SPEAKER 1: So it's important to imagine it
in its original context, within a temple, sensuously painted.
And in that kind of religious spiritual context.
SPEAKER 2: Yes, in a much darker environment, as well.
And surrounded by other sculptures and paintings.