Fall 2022 - The Figure

Works from the Xuzhou Collection, never before presented in a public museum, are currently on long-term loan
to the Museum and displayed in the Arts of Asia Galleries in the Caroline Wiess Law Building.
Embodying
Buddhist Ideas
BY HAO SHENG
CONSULTING CURATOR OF ASIAN ART
“ It was Buddhism, rather than the western canon,
which gave me the idea of the abstract body. It
gave me the idea that you can make sculpture
about being rather than doing; that you can make
sculpture that becomes a reflexive instrument
rather than existing as a freeze-form in a narrative.”
—Antony Gormley (British sculptor, born 1950)
I N T H E M I X
35
All Ears
The only traces of the Buddha’s
early life of princely luxury are
the long earlobes that were once
weighted down by fine jewelry.
Buddhism holds its own teaching as a means, not an end. In an
often-evoked metaphor, a raft ferries seekers over the river of
ignorance. The idea that Buddhist art serves as this vehicle for
enlightenment has been instrumental in the creation of sculptures
such as these in the Xuzhou Collection. For an informed
reader of Buddhist images, the seemingly simple, formulaic
Buddha figures manifest layers of ideas. They signal divine
Buddhahood, recount his earthly biography, demonstrate the
practice of the Middle Path, and embody supreme wisdom.
A Buddha figure bears marks of a “Great Being.” The ushnisha,
a prominent bump above his head, is a symbol of expanded
wisdom attained at enlightenment. The dot on his forehead
between the eyes, called urna, reveals penetrating visions
beyond our mundane world. The figures are often burnished
in gold to capture radiant skin that is said to shine light from
each pore. Encouraged by sacred texts, sculptors imagined the
Buddha’s physical perfection by bringing together the loveliest
and most powerful forms in nature. His broad shoulders and
tapered waist are likened to a lion’s torso, his supple arms to
elephant trunks, his half-closed eyelids to the curvy petals of
a lotus flower, and the folds of his robe to calm ripples over a
deep pool (see opposite page).
Height: 15 3/4”
Height: 18 1/8”