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Earthenware pieces from the Jōmon and Banpo culture. 

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Left to Right: Vessel, Jōmon, Japan, 10,500-300 BCE, and Bowl, Banpo, China, 5,000-2000 BCE.

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Left to Right: Vessel, Jōmon, Japan, 10,500-300 BCE, and Bowl, Banpo, China, 5,000-2000 BCE.

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Pottery during the Neolithic period of Japan and China such as the vessel and bowl pictured above share a few common and contrasting characteristics with each other. One similarity is they both are detailed in a way that it's suitable to the piece. What I mean by that is both objects do not have the same level of detail and that's okay because even though the Jōmon pottery piece is remarkably detailed in an abstract way, it doesn't look over the top. Likewise, the Banpo bowl has a simple design on the inside of the bowl and a pattern on the rim, so overall the quantity and simplicity of the design makes the pottery piece look more appealing, as opposed to if it had the same amount of detail as the vessel. On top of the detail, both works have a theriomorphic motif. An additional similarity is both pieces were created to serve a unique purpose. The Neolithic vessel, in my opinion, is a much fancier looking piece compared to the Neolithic bowl from China. The vessel has a base that gets wider as it extends up. This shape along with the texture reminds me of an upside-down tree with the roots sticking out. Due to the piece not being drinkable because the clay expands into a handle-like shape and the intricate details that make it appear fancy, the vessel could have been used for ceremonial purposes. On the contrary, the Banpo bowl functions as a lid. It was placed on the top of an urn to protect the inner contents, which was usually infant remains. Even though they had a different purpose, the vessel and bowl were created to serve a limited and special function. One more thing to add, a difference between the two artworks is the technique; the vessel uses an additive technique where the clay is stacked on top of a layer of clay to create a texture, while the bowl uses a coiling technique where the clay is rolled into coils and then scored and slipped on to form the walls layer by layer.

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Dancing girl, originated from Mohenjo-Daro, 2600-1900 CE. Bronze figurine made from lost-wax technique. 

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Dancing Girl Sculpture, Mohenjo-Daro, Indus Valley Civilization, 2600-1900 BCE.

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Dancing Girl Sculpture, Mohenjo-Daro, Indus Valley Civilization, 2600-1900 BCE.

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Starting bottom-up, the absence of both ankles and feet could mean either the object had none to begin with or it had been broken off. If it were the latter, it could have been intentional because this piece was formed out of the lost-wax technique, so it is made from bronze, and bronze is harder than copper; thus, a specific tool may have been involved to separate the parts cleanly to not cause further damage. Moving up, it is apparent that the left knee is bent while the right leg is straight. So far, the statue is showing characteristics of being organic; this can be seen from the lower body up to her stomach having normal proportions. In addition, her body is bare everywhere except for a few areas: chest, arms, and head. From the chest area, a necklace dangles from her neck. Her neck piece contains three smooth oval shaped objects that are centered on her chest. Other jewelry pieces are seen covering both arms – her left arm is completely covered in jewelry, and by the way the hand is shaped, the hand may have held a rod at some point. Moreover, her arms extend to her knees, this indicates her arms are abnormally long, and therefore, it is highly stylized. One more observation about the arms, is that her right arm is bent. Lastly, moving on to the head, her head is raised up and leaning to one side, along with her eyes are closed. A raised head has a significant meaning, it means being of higher status/authority. Her facial and head qualities look organic, and her hair is neatly held back by a braid. As a whole, her body is in a tribhanga pose because tribhanga involves three bends, and her head, torso, and leg are all bent. The jewelry, the amount of detail on her hair to make it look braided, and the head tilting upward are all signs that this Mohenjo-Daro piece was meant for the wealthy upper-class.

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Fang-ding vessel owned by Shang's military commander, Fu Hao, between 1300-1000 BCE.

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Fang Ding Vessel, Bronze, Tomb of Fu Hao, Late Shang, 1300-1000 BCE.

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Fang Ding Vessel, Bronze, Tomb of Fu Hao, Late Shang, 1300-1000 BCE.

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This bronze sculpture was one out of five fang-ding pieces that were found inside Fu Hao's tomb. This is significant because grave robbing was frequent, and it was fortunate that Fu Hao's burial site was missed by grave robber because she wasn't buried at the Royal Cemetery like the Shang Kings were. Since this object was discovered inside the tomb of one of the most influential women in the Shang Dynasty, Fu Hao, there are a few subjects to be mentioned regarding the construction, style/features, and the purpose the fang-ding sculpture had for Fu Hao. The first topic will dive into is how the fang-ding object was created. The initial model was identical in size and detail to the present version — the only difference between the two was the material it was produced from. The original fang-ding version was made out of clay. Through the section mold technique, the original version was covered in clay to create a mold, the mold was then separated in even sections, and the clay fang-ding piece was removed. Next, the pieces of the mold was put back together around a clay core. Then, bronze was heated up into a liquid, and was poured into a hole at the top of the mold to create the shape of the fang-ding. Once the liquid cooled down, the mold was broken apart, and what was left was a equivalent version of the original, but now, entirely bronze. Switching gears, the fang-ding has two distinct styles. One style has a two handles attached to a hollow square body with legs that are shaped like cylinders. The second style has similar components, except each leg are shaped like a two-dimensional elf shoe, with a zoomorphic depiction of a open-mouthed gui dragon on the upper part and a curling tail on the bottom part of the leg. A special feature that is displayed from this Shang vessel is the taotie motif that can seen in red on the image on the right. Another cool feature is that the fang-ding has the posthumous title of Fu Hao's name inscribed in it. One last topic to discuss are the two functions of the fang-ding vessels. The square shape of this vessel signifies that it was for royalty. This particular bronze sculpture was used as a status symbol for Fu Hao, and she also used it to make food offering to her ancestors until her death, then it was placed into her tomb, where it could be used by Fu Hao in the afterlife.

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Early, middle, and late Western Zhou pieces from 1000-771 BCE China.

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Left to Right: Li Gui, Early Western Zhou, China, 1000-771 BCE; You, Middle Western Zhou, China, 1000-771 BCE; Hu, Late Western Zhou, China, 1000-771 BCE.

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Left to Right: Li Gui, Early Western Zhou, China, 1000-771 BCE; You, Middle Western Zhou, China, 1000-771 BCE; Hu, Late Western Zhou, China, 1000-771 BCE.

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There were three unique changes between the bronze Zhou vessels that were made toward the handles, base, and the style as the development of the Zhou vessels progressed from the early, middle, and late Western Zhou periods. The early, Li Gui, Zhou vessel has two bulky handles with extra rectangular attachments that stick out in both directions: horizontally and vertically. The middle Zhou object, You, has one thin handle that arches over the lid of the vessel with two bottom attachments at the sides that are round because the Zhou lost interest in incorporating rectangles in their bronze pieces. The late Zhou vessel has two tiny handles with rings that were precast and embedded in the section mold technique, and two protruding attachments on the top and bottom of the handles. The key takeaway from this, in terms of the handles, is that the Zhou casters have moved away from the heavy, thick handles with the rectangular attachments, and have moved to lighter, smaller handles with mild protrusions and premade rings. Another change was to the base after the early Zhou period. In the Li Gui piece, the base was an accessory that enhanced the appearance of the vessel and was separate from the main piece. But for vessels in the middle and late Zhou periods, the base was excluded. The final change was made to the style of the Zhou bronze ware. The Shang had bronze vessels that were square-shaped and had flanges to hide the seams. The Shang also had gui, taotie, and thunder pattern motifs that they used on their vessels. In the early Zhou period, the Zhou's incorporated some of these characteristics from the Shang Dynasty. Such as in the Li Gui piece, the base and front have taotie motifs and the object is square-shaped. Around the middle period, the Zhou strayed away from the Shang's motifs and square-shaped style and moved to curvy, circular-shaped pieces with bird motifs. The last period had the most important changes toward the Zhou's style which was the use of continuous lines that move up and down, like a wave, and the use of shapes to fill in for the empty spaces because these changes made the Zhou's style distinctive, and original in their own way. These Zhou vessels served a few purposes, to be a family heirloom that was only given by the Zhou King or to be trophy to commemorate a significant event like the conquest of Shang or for ritual/offering purposes. While the Shang vessels were also used for ritual purposes and to make offerings to the afterlife. The Shang vessels had more of a funeral function and belonged in wealthy people's tombs such as Fu Hao's tomb.

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Bronze vessel made with four casting techniques, and discovered in the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng.

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Pan and Zun, Tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng, Warring States, China, 433 BCE.

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Pan and Zun, Tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng, Warring States, China, 433 BCE.

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The excavation of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng revealed bronzeware that were created from the state of Zeng. This is an important discovery because Zeng had Zhou casters who created bronze pieces using various technologies. This pan and zun vessel are one of the bronze vessels found in the tomb that has four of Zhou’s technologies, and it's purpose of being built was to be a fancy ornamental liquid container. To cast the vessel, the four techniques used were the section mold, lost wax, pattern block, and joinery techniques. The object is divided into two portions. The lower part that is capable of holding liquid, namely wine, is called the zun, and the upper portion which constitutes the vase is the pan. The part of the zun without the rim, and any piece that is impermeable to air was made by the section mold technique. The rim of the zun was made by the lost wax technique, along with the pieces that have the serpent "s" shaped pattern like the hybrid cheetah-serpent handles. Furthermore, the dotted print pattern that can be seen on the zun basin was made using the pattern block technique. The pattern may have an overlapping of dots because the technique uses a fired clay block containing a decorative pattern to speed up the design process, but the disadvantage is that the quality goes down. The last casting technology used was the joinery technique to "glue" the pieces, possibly by soldering the pieces together. Lastly, as I said earlier, the pan and zun set are split between an upper and bottom section; this is the most obvious use of the joinery technique. Other pieces that needed to be joined were the legs, and all the "s" shaped pattern pieces attached to the zun and the pan.

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Tomb of Qin dynasty's first emperor, Qin Huang, and tomb of 16th ruler of Japan, Emperor Nintoku.

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Left to right: Tomb of the First Emperor, Qin, China, 221-206 BCE; Tomb of Emperor Nintoku, Kofun, Japan, 4th Century CE.

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Left to right: Tomb of the First Emperor, Qin, China, 221-206 BCE; Tomb of Emperor Nintoku, Kofun, Japan, 4th Century CE.

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Starting first with the emperor's tomb in China. Qin Shi Huangdi was a memorable emperor who unified China. He was also a visionary; he set into motion the construction of his own tomb, when he was still alive. This unique aspiration of his has set his tomb apart from other tombs such as Emperor's Nintoku because Emperor Qin's most important values during the time he ruled has been reflected in the objects within the tomb, and the tomb's structure. Maintaining a legalist lifestyle was what Emperor Qin took value in, and he expressed this value through the size and look of his terracotta army. The size of the terracotta warriors and horses were life size; these dimensions expressed to everyone that Emperor Qin's army is a menacing force. The appearance of each warrior varied because their attire was based on their rank; however, every warrior shared an adequate level of realism, and most of the warriors had an accessory in common which was the possession of actual weapons. The sculpture's special garments, realistic appearance, and use of real weapons indicate that Emperor Qin wanted his mausoleum to be recreated as close to reality as possible, and that meant making his military's demeanor daunting to embody his principle of legalism by broadcasting to the world that he can unleash his strong and armed military to carry out punishments and invoke fear into those who might try to defy him. The tombs contents and it's structure reveals that Emperor Qin had a greater emphasis on making his afterlife complete with human sacrifices, and an array of terracotta statues made from molds and fired clay than making the tomb's structure more sophisticated as opposed to the mound it is. The next tomb belongs to the emperor of Japan, Nintoku; his tomb was constructed in Japan in 4th century CE. Unlike Emperor Qin, it is unknown if Emperor Nintoku lived during the construction of his tomb. In contrast to the terracotta figures inside Emperor Qin's tomb, Emperor Nintoku's tomb contained thousands of haniwa dispersed all over the surface of the kofun with each piece having been carefully handcrafted and placed on the top part of a foundational cylindrical clay piece. The haniwa's are special because they are terracotta pieces that show a simpler and softer image of various entities that were present during the Kofun period. One last difference between Emperor Nintoku's tomb and the one in China is the presence of a moat and a keyhole shaped mound that creates an illusion that a tomb never existed there. A similarity between both tombs are that they provided a home for thousands of clay objects that were specifically made to reside in the area, and all the clay figures were made with lots of detail, and arranged in a specific way that information can be derived from it. Like for instance, the pieces can give information on China's military tactics and Japan's culture.

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A photograph of three out of the four coffins found in Lady Dai's tomb.

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Coffins, Tomb of Lady Dai at Mawangdui, Western Han Dynasty, China, 168 BCE.

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Coffins, Tomb of Lady Dai at Mawangdui, Western Han Dynasty, China, 168 BCE.

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These exquisite coffins belong to the aristocrat Lady Dai. She lived with her husband and son during the Han Dynasty. Before her early demise, from regularly drinking her concocted mercury drink to gain immortality, her husband and son passed away. Lady Dai's husband and son's tombs are next to hers but in poor condition due to the infiltration of air, causing the structure of the tomb to disintegrate and the items within to deteriorate. Lady Dai's tomb, however, has been preserved in an excellent state along with her body, thanks to a thick layer of white clay and charcoal surrounding her tomb that is helping to keep the air out and the structure intact. At the core of Lady Dai's tomb lays a set of four coffins. One of Lady Dai's coffins is plain and is not pictured in the image above. But the rest are, and they are covered in swirling clouds, mythological creatures, and other patterns that incorporate one theme: Lady Dai's journey to immortality or her hún essence entering into the afterlife. Each of the decorated coffins was made using coats of lacquer. The process of painting the coffins requires lots of labor, so the coffins are more significant in value than bronze pieces. On the surface of the square sides of the red coffin are two dragons floating in the air in a rearing position with smoky clouds meandering around them. The rearing position can mean two things - either the dragons are showing their excitement or are expressing their aggression. It is highly likely the dragons are displaying the latter because they are soul protectors, and Lady Dai's soul needs guarding in her path toward immortality. One last thing to mention is that silk fabric and feathers were glued to the top of the darkest lacquered coffin. The feathers are another reference to immortality.

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The Great Stupa commissioned by the son of Emperor Ashoka in the Maurya dynasty. 

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The Great Stupa at Sanchi, Maurya dynasty, India, 1st Century BCE.

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The Great Stupa at Sanchi, Maurya dynasty, India, 1st Century BCE.

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Made from bricks and stone, The Great Stupa, encases Buddha's relics which are marked by three umbrellas positioned at the top of the dome structure. The umbrellas represent the Three Jewels of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Dharma, and Sangha. Bordering the dome, a stone railing, and a low wall with four exit points attached exist. These points are called toranas, huge arched gateways with carvings etched on them to depict a story. Typically, the carvings are aniconic, the use of symbols to represent Buddha. This is because in early Indian art it was considered disrespectable to portray Buddha in his human form when he had reach complete enlightenment, Parinirvana. Some symbols that were used to symbolize Buddha was a lotus flower, footprints, the Dharma wheel, and a tree. All these symbols are important because they mark the memorable moments during Buddha's life. For instance, the lotus flower grew out of the ground exactly where Buddha took his first 7 steps. Besides the symbols, the stories are unique in that they have different narratives. They can be conflated where the protagonist is portrayed once, or continuous, the protagonist is repeated within a single frame, or even monoscenic where you have to analyze the characters in the scene to understand what direction the story is starting. Some examples of these narratives can be seen on the three architraves, the horizontal beams that rest on the two columns that make up the toranas. Additionally, the art on the toranas can have stories that are didactic, stories with a distinct purpose in providing enough information that viewers can learn from it.

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Standing Buddha statue with figure wearing a slim fitted robe; it was made from the Kushan Dynasty using the material, grey schist.

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Standing Buddha, Kushan Dynasty, Gandhara, 1st - 3rd Century CE.

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Standing Buddha, Kushan Dynasty, Gandhara, 1st - 3rd Century CE.

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The Kushan Dynasty, formally the Yuezhi tribe, were clueless to the Buddhism religion, resulting in the creation of many sculptures portraying Buddha in his human form. The Standing Buddha sculpture is made from a metamorphic rock called grey schist. Sculptures made from grey schist are a key indication that the style is Gandharan – other indications of the style are slightly closed eyes, a robe that highlights the shape of a fit body, wavy hair, and Buddha's stance being contrapposto, a more naturalistic pose. Some of these characteristics, the wavy hair, string-fold garment, contrapposto pose, and long nose resemble the Greco-Roman style. The incorporation of the Greco-Roman style into the Buddha statues is a direct result of Greek sculptors that settled in Bactria, and later relocated to Gandhara to produce Buddha sculptures that share the traits of both Gandharan and Greco-Roman art styles. Also, these Greek artists may have influenced other Buddhist sculptors into adopting the Greco-Roman art style. Extra components that constitute the Standing Buddha is the giant circle attached behind the back of Buddha's head. The circle represents a halo rooted from the Persian sun god. The next part are the stylized ears; the exaggeration of the ears was meant to signify how the weight of Buddha's earrings caused his ears to drop and become elongated. Another component is the head or more specifically the shape of the skull and its significance. The Kushans added a protuberance to Buddha's head to shed light upon the fact that Buddha is highly intelligent. Other details to touch base on is the dot between the eyes is called an urna, and there appears to be a carving on the base of devas facing a dharma wheel with their hands in a praying position. Since the wheel is in the center, the narrative must be conflated, and since the wheel is a dharma wheel it is aniconic of Buddha. One last thing to note is the hands. From the Standing Buddha's perspective, his right hand/arm has completely deteriorated. While on his other hand, it appears he is holding an object.

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Gupta Mathura style Buddha from 5th-century CE.

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Buddha, Mathura, Standstone, Gupta Dynasty India, 5th Century CE.

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Buddha, Mathura, Standstone, Gupta Dynasty India, 5th Century CE.

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This Gupta Buddha sculpture differs from earlier workshop styles under the Kushans in many ways. Starting with the halo, the blank space is minimal because each circle within the halo is fully covered in patterns. This is quite the opposite from the Gandhara halo that is entirely filled with blank space. Another difference I noticed is that the halo's diameter is at least four times the width of Buddha's head. This is a significantly larger halo compared to the Kushan Gandharan and Mathuran sculptures. Moving on, the shape of Buddha's face is rounder, and his hair has a series of snail-shell curls. One last difference I saw is the robe; the style closely resembles the Kushan Gandharan robe, but unlike the Kushan robe, it incorporates a string-fold pattern that outlines the body a bit more. When comparing this Gupta Dynasty piece from the Gandhara Buddhist art style, I found a few similarities. Firstly, both art styles had at one point in time displayed a mudra, a symbolic hand gesture commonly used in Buddhist art. On top of that, both styles had slightly closed eyes, a contrapposto stance, and the robe is fitted to the body. While comparing these two art styles I spotted additional distinctions between the two. The Gandhara styled Buddha had wavy hair with a widow peak hairline and was made out of grey schist, a material typically used in Gandharan art, while the Gupta styled Buddha utilized the snail-shell curl as the type of hair with a smooth hairline similar to the Kushan Mathura styled Buddha, and used sandstone to build the statue.

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A Maitreya Buddha statue located inside the Mogao Caves in the city of Dunhuang. 

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Maitreya Buddha, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, Northern & Southern Dynasties, 5 Century CE.

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Maitreya Buddha, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, Northern & Southern Dynasties, 5 Century CE.

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Dunhuang City in Northwestern China harbors the Mogao Caves, one of the initial caves dedicated to Mahayana Buddhism. The caves are a special historical site that has its origins from a pair of traveling monks who stumbled upon it, and slowly transformed the caves into a place of worship and mediation for Buddhist. The Mogao Caves are renowned for holding the tripitaka, a collection of Buddha's sacred text, and other items such as fresco paintings and Buddha sculptures. Amidst the rock structures of the Mogao Caves, sits the oldest cave at Dunhuang, Cave 275, that holds the Maitreya Buddha statue as pictured above. The statue was built to represent Maitreya, a bodhisattva and the Buddha of the future who currently dwells in Tushita heaven. The bodhisattva statue was created using materials of straw, plaster, and blue/white paint. The Maitreya figure sits on a plastered throne with two friendly creatures standing on each side. On the back walls, there are painted images of more bodhisattvas that vary in size to create depth, so viewers can distinguish the fore, middle, and back grounds. On the side walls, there are smaller bodhisattva statues with their legs crossed. The cross-legged position that can be seen on the bodhisattvas and even on the large Buddha sculpture is an iconographic trait that symbolizes Maitreya. There are two jewelry items that are visible on the statue, a simple low-hanging necklace that droops down to the figure's navel and a wider necklace that is more complex. The statue wears a string-fold garment on the lower portion of its body; besides that, a piece of the garment rests on each shoulder or that could be more jewelry. Within the halo, there are three rings. The most inner ring is plain blue. The ring above it is filled with white lotus flowers, which are an aniconic symbol for Buddha, and the outer ring is filled with cloud designs. Moving on, one of the hands is missing, but the other is positioned with the palm facing outward, indicating that the statue is doing a mudra gesture; finally, if you look at the headpiece of the Buddha statue, it's blurry, but there is another cross-legged bodhisattva inside the circle.

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Large-scale Buddha carved out of sandstone from the valley of Bamiyan in Afghanistan.

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Bamiyan Buddhas, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 6th-7th Century CE.

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Bamiyan Buddhas, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 6th-7th Century CE.

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The town of Bamiyan was formally a popular stop for merchants who traveled using the Silk Roads. It was where two Buddhas were built to be lofty sandstone statues engulfed in multiple colors with a face, fully intact. Located in the Kush mountains alongside the carved Buddhas are cave monasteries that provided housing to the travelers and merchants who were crossing through the city. Unfortunately, time had gnawed away the once colorful outer layer of the Buddha statues, and the facial features — besides the lips and chin — that the statues once had, has vanished into thin air due to the work of individuals who believe Buddha should remain in his enlightened state, and that meant removing what made Buddha human and that was his face. Moreover, the site and the Buddhas have gone through drastic changes as a result of iconoclasm by the Taliban. A significant art style depicted by the Bamiyan Buddhas and has its roots from the Guptas are the components that constitute the robe. These characteristics are the string-folds that give the robe a textured appearance, the way the fabric clings to the body, and how the robe is long and does an excellent job at not exposing skin. The Guptas were not the sole creators behind the distinctive garment of these statues; they used the Gandhara's style as inspiration for the robe's features, except for the texture which the Guptas had changed marginally, so the grooves that the Gandharans used for their Buddha's robe exterior became many uniformed lines in the Guptas' version.