SACKLER TO EXHIBIT LATER EAST ASIAN FIGURE PAINTINGS

Released: October 8, 1997

The special exhibition Paragons of Wisdom and Virtue: Later East Asian Figure Painting will be on display at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum from October 18, 1997 through August 30, 1998. This exhibition introduces a selection of later Chinese, Korean, and Japanese figure paintings drawn from the Sackler's permanent collection and from several local private collections. The paintings range in subject matter from civil officials, historical figures, and beautiful women to amateur poets, Taoist immortals, and Buddhist monks. Paragons of Wisdom and Virtue is organized by Robert D. Mowry, curator of Chinese Art and head of the Department of Asian Art, Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

The principal subjects of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese painting are landscapes, figures, and the flora and fauna of nature. Although the landscape, with its towering mountains and rushing streams, was the most important subject of later East Asian painting, it was never the only focus. Indeed, before the tenth century in China, and before the fifteenth century in Korea and Japan, the human figure claimed pride of place as the painter's principal subject. Even after the rise of landscape painting, the human figure continued to occupy a distinguished niche in the repertoire of subjects.

The goal of East Asian figure painting was never the celebration of the human form (as it was in traditional Western art) but the presentation of paragons of wisdom and virtue whose noble deeds and lofty attainments might inspire emulation. Portraits of ancestors and likenesses of historical personages found favor, especially in China, while genre paintings rose to popularity in Korea and Japan. Such genre scenes recorded all aspects of daily life, from street scenes and domestic interiors to theatrical performances and ceremonial processions. Japanese artists also created illustrated biographies of celebrated monks as well as illustrated histories of Buddhist temples and monasteries, all of which display a wealth of narrative detail.

Through the Song dynasty (960-1279), the goal of Chinese painting had largely been verisimilitude, or naturalistic depiction; to this end, formal elements-line, texture, brushwork, and color, among others-were subordinated to representational goals. During the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), scholar-amateur painters began to experiment with expressionism, in the sense that they discovered the expressive value of formal elements and began to prize them for their own sake. Their goal was to capture the idea or essence of the subject rather than its mere outward appearance. In their paintings, the subject matter became a vehicle for the expression of the ideas, feelings, and personality of the artist. Such personal expressionism became the norm in Chinese literati painting during the succeeding Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties; it also gained popularity in Korea during the Choson period (1392-1910) and in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1868). Earlier figure paintings thus tend to be more descriptive while later ones tend to be more expressionistic.

The imposing Portrait of a Seated Civil Official (early 17th century), a Chinese hanging scroll from the Ming dynasty, depicts a gentleman dressed in a red robe with a badge of rank (the so-called mandarin square) emblazoned with a pair of crested birds amid scrolling clouds, indicating his status as a civil official. However the man's solemn expression and stable mountain-like form, created through the rendering of his robe's ample drapery, in and of themselves propound his stately wisdom. He sits in a magistrate's chair draped with a silk brocade. Visible at the bottom, the lacquer chair shows scrolling designs carved through alternating layers of red and black lacquer. It has been suggested that this portrait may represent Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), a translator and associate of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), a famous Italian Jesuit priest active in China in the late Ming period.

Two Choson-period Korean paintings descriptively entitled Luohan Viewing a Scroll Representing a Seated Bodhisattva and Luohan Riding a Spotted White Deer 18th-19th century) will be on display for the first time at the Sackler. These paintings rank among the period's finest representations of luohans (Korean, nakhan)-enlightened beings who are striving to attain the final stage of spiritual awareness. Luohans are not deities but are revered as disciples or worthies of the Buddha. Because of Korea's strongly Neo-Confucian orientation during the Choson dynasty, the Buddhist church did not enjoy the generous patronage that it had during the preceding Koryo dynasty (918-1392), with the result that most Buddhist art produced during the Choson period displays a folk-art quality. But these two paintings are exceptions-thanks to their inventive compositions, sensitive interpretations, and meticulous descriptions, they reflect a very high level of quality.

The Regent Hojo Tokiyori in Disguise, an historical painting by the nineteenth-century Japanese artist Hashimoto Gaho (1835-1908) depicts a famous thirteenth-century political figure. After handing over the regency to his son Tokimune, Tokyori traveled throughout Japan disguised as a priest in order to ascertain first-hand the conditions of the people. In the painting he is shown on the road in the deep snow. Dressed as a monk, he holds onto his hat to keep it from blowing away in the bitter wind. Hashimoto Gaho is the father of the revival of Japanese-style painting (Nihonga); his manner is the antithesis of Western-style paintings, but he borrowed the perspective and shading of the West to give his landscapes more space and volume.

A very moving and important Kamakura-period (1185-1333) Japanese Buddhist sculpture (dedicated circa 1292) depicting Prince Shotoku at Age Two will also be included in this exhibition. Prince Shotoku (also known as Shotoku Taishi, 574-622) was a learned scholar and statesman credited with the drafting and enactment of many important Japanese political codes, who gained even more enduring historical significance as an early champion of the Buddhist faith upon its introduction to Japan in the sixth century. Later Japanese Buddhists of many different sects came to venerate Shotoku and worshipped paintings and sculptures that depict him at a number of different stages in life. Like many other historical figures governed by the laws of sacred biography, Shotoku is credited with a number of miraculous powers. Especially popular are images of the prince as a two-year-old when he is said to have joined his hands in prayer chanting "I take refuge in the Buddha," and made manifest in his hands a miraculous Buddhist relic. This charming sculpture-the earliest dated image of the young Shotoku-shows an expressive combination of adult and childlike characteristics: the boy's cherubic rings of baby fat and small, plump body are seamlessly blended with the mature posture and intense spiritual focus of an adult. This statue is of particular significance because of the many dedicatory objects that accompanied it, including tiny votive statues, printed and handwritten religious texts and commentaries, Buddhist charms, and a group of crystal beads of various sizes that represent the relics of the historical Buddha (a small selection of these items will be on display at the Sackler). These items were deposited inside the Shotoku sculpture in order to enliven it and to accrue spiritual merit for the people who placed them there, eternally bonding the devotees to this important religious figure. The fascinating combination of materials and extreme care with which they were enshrined, as well as the incense-soot-blackened state of the sculpture itself bespeak the intensity of the popular tradition of Shotoku-worship that developed in Japan during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

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The Harvard University Art Museums comprise three museums (Busch-Reisinger Museum, Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum), all located on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, MA, at the intersection of Quincy Street and Broadway, adjacent to Harvard Yard. The Art Museums are open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., and Sunday 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Closed holidays. Admission is $5.00; $4.00 for senior citizens; $3.00 for students; free under 18 and on Saturday mornings. The Art Museums' facilities are wheelchair accessible. For special tour reservations, please call (617) 496-8576. General tours are offered Monday through Friday from September through June. The Fogg tour is at 11:00 a.m.; the Busch-Reisinger tour is at 1:00 p.m.; and the Sackler is at 2:00 p.m.

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