Reflections of the Buddha - The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

Main Gallery
Buddha Śākyamuni
After the death of Śākyamuni in the fifth century BCE, his followers disseminated his teachings throughout India.
Yet it was not until the first century BCE that the image of Śākyamuni appeared in art. As his image spread to
other countries and cultures, regional differences appeared, while certain aspects remained consistent: he wears
a monk’s robe, he has an usnīsa, and his earlobes are distended and unadorned (signs of renounced wealth). Each
of the sculptures in this gallery—with the possible exception of the Indian Torso of a Buddha—was once colorfully
painted.
5. A Scene from the Life of the Buddha, late 2nd
or early 3rd century
Pakistan, ancient Gandhāra region;
Kushan period, 1st century BCE – 3rd
century CE; phyllite; 22½ x 37 x 3½
in.; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City, Missouri, Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust,
55-105
Made for a set of narrative reliefs of the Buddha’s life,
this panel probably depicts followers greeting Śākyamuni
as he traveled through India teaching the Dharma, the
essence of phenomena, or the law that governs things.
An artist from a Greco-Buddhist workshop carved it in
Gandhāra, a crossroad on the main trade route linking
Asia with the Roman Empire.
6. Torso of a Buddha, 5th century
India, Uttar Pradesh, Mathurā; Gupta period,
320 – 647; mottled red sandstone;
44½ x 21½ x 8½ in.; The Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri,
Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust,
45-15
This sculpture is carved from mottled red
sandstone, the local stone of Mathurā, a dynamic and
prosperous region where Buddhist art flourished between
about 319 and 500. The folds of Śākyamuni’s robe cascade
down in rings, creating a sense of serenity and
equilibrium.
7. The Monk Ananda (Anantuo), 9th century
China, Tang dynasty, 618 – 907; limestone;
64� x 16 x 8¾ in.; The Minneapolis Institute
of Arts, Gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton, 98.166
Ananda, cousin of Śākyamuni, became one
of his chief disciples, helping found the
San� gha, or the monastic order of men and
women. This sculpture belonged to a
grouping in a cave sanctuary, where the Ananda figure
stood next to the central image of Śākyamuni.
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8. Head of Buddha Śākyamuni, 4th century
Afghanistan, ancient Gandhāra region,
probably Hadda; stucco with traces of pigment;
18 x 10½ x 9¾ in.; Saint Louis Art
Museum, Museum Purchase, 43:1931
This stucco head likely capped a clay
body, which was part of a sculptural
group attached to a wall, probably in
Hadda, one of the largest Buddhist centers in
Afghanistan.
9. Standing Buddha Śākyamuni (Shijiamouni),
late 6th century
China, Northern Qi dynasty, 550 – 577, or
Sui dynasty, 581 – 618; marble with traces
of pigment; 63¾ x 18 x 9 in.; Saint Louis Art
Museum, Museum Purchase, 182:1919
This sculpture presents a lotus bud
carved between Śākyamuni’s feet and an
honorific tassel in the form of a lotus blossom near his
shoulder. Since the lotus has roots in mud, a stem that
extends up through water, and a flower that blossoms in
the sun, its growth, for Buddhists, signifies the exit from
the mud of samsāra into the radiance of Nirvāna.
10. Sea of Buddha, 1995, Hiroshi Sugimoto
Japanese, born 1948; gelatin
silver prints, triptych,
negative numbers 001, 002, 003;
each: 47 x 58¾ in.; private
collection
With this series, Sugimoto
photographed the interior of
Sanjūsangen-dō, a twelfth-century Buddhist temple in
Kyoto with 1,001 life-size sculptures of the bodhisattva of
compassion, Avalokiteśvara, standing multiple rows deep.
Each one depicted here has forty arms, with the power to
save twenty-five worlds. Sugimoto wanted to capture
their “splendor . . . glistening in the light of the morning
sun rising over the Higashiyama hills as the Kyoto aristocracy
might have seen in the Heian period.”