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Another fortuitous encounter brought
Mihal into the orbit of Chauncey Lowe, a
Chinese art collector who has since contributed
many outstanding pieces to the
Vanderbilt Asian Art Collection. Mihal was
lecturing in Florida and was introduced to
Lowe after one of his lectures. “Chauncey
invited me to his home, and I almost fell
through the floor when I saw his collection,”
says Mihal. This chance meeting has led to
many significant donations of Chinese art
to Vanderbilt, including one of the most
important pieces in the collection—a magnificent
Ding ware vase from the Northern
Song dynasty (960–1126).
Because of limited exhibition space, the
Vanderbilt Asian Art Collection functions primarily
as a student learning resource. “Students
need to be able to handle the objects
they are studying,” says Mihal. He provides a
useful analogy: “Let’s say you’re a music student,
and you’re studying a piece of music but
all you have is the score. You never encounter
the piece firsthand. You need to hear it. Students
need to have a confrontation with the
original work of art—a one-to-one experience
with something that has been created by
another human being.”
Tracy Miller, assistant professor of art history
at Vanderbilt, agrees. “Photographs of
art used in class necessarily flatten objects
from 3-D to 2-D and distort scale. Seeing original
objects is essential to understanding how
an object was made and used. When
students are writing research
papers, we frequently walk
over to the gallery and look
at the object together. We
take out a magnifying glass and
examine the brushwork or the
marks left from carving. This
is impossible to do with reproductions.”
Accordingly, a por-
Left: Horoshige’s color wood-block
print “A Pilgrims’ Association
Procession at Kanasugibashi at
Shibaura,” from the Anna C. Hoyt Collection;
upper left: the 18th-century Japanese Suzuribako
(writing case) is made of lacquer with gold
and silver; above: the Western Han dynasty
(206 BCE–9 CE) “Horse with Rider” was a gift
from Chauncey P. Lowe; upper right: a Ming
dynasty (1368–1644) Bodhisattva
tion of the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts
Gallery is permanently dedicated to the needs
of students. Every semester, Mella coordinates
exhibits with professors to ensure that syllabuses
and exhibits are closely integrated.
The Asian Art Collection also does much
to enhance Vanderbilt’s profile on the world
stage. “As a top-tier research university, it is
beneficial for Vanderbilt to support research
and teaching about Asia, which contains
almost two-thirds of the world’s population,”
says Miller. Having objects
from the Asian Art Collection available
for viewing “enriches and
broadens the perspectives
of students as
well as public viewers,”
she continues. “As the
collection grows, its
original works of art will
also become the subject
of research by outside scholars,
who will further contribute
to the intellectual diversity of the
College of Arts and Science and
Vanderbilt as a whole.”
Singling out other
highlights from a collection
of this quality
and size is no easy
task; the collection is
broad and deep and
includes ceramics, woodblock
prints, lacquer-ware, sculpture,
paintings, calligraphy scrolls, illustrated
books, artists’ notebooks, jades, bronzes,
textiles, textile stencils (tough paper coated
with persimmon juice—works of art
in themselves), and many other
Asian artifacts. One of the most
striking pieces in the Asian Art
Collection is a Ming dynasty-era
(1368–1644), painted terra-cotta
statue of a Bodhisattva, which
dominates the rear of the Fine
Arts Gallery. Other notable pieces
include an Indian statue of Vishnu, a
remarkable six-panel screen from the Japanese
Tosa School depicting the 10th-century
Tale of Genji (purportedly the first novel ever
written), a rare Tang dynasty-era (618–907)
head of Buddha, an exquisite Japanese
portable writing set (which Mella describes
as “the laptop of its day”), and color woodblock
prints by Munakata Shiko (1903–
1975), who is generally considered to be one
of the most significant Japanese artists of the
20th century.
The collection, highlights of which are
regularly shown in the Vanderbilt University
Fine Arts Gallery as part of larger thematic
exhibitions, offers fascinating perspectives
into Asian history, religious beliefs and society.
In doing so it forms an important cultural
bridge between Vanderbilt and the wider
world, and an artistic bridge between traditional
Western aesthetic sensibilities and the
sublimities and economical beauties of Asian
art making.
Paul Deakin writes about the visual arts and music
for numerous publications. He is a lecturer in music
theory at the Blair School of Music.
V a n d e r b i l t M a g a z i n e
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