Kneeling apsaras playing a lute

Unknown (Chinese)

Item type:

sculpture

Date of creation:

first half of 6th century

Height:

12.0 cm  (4 3/4 in.)

Width:

8.5 cm  (3 3/8 in.)

Depth:

2.6 cm  (1 in.)

Technique / Medium:

gilt bronze

Place of creation:

Zhongguo [China] (中国 )

School:

Northern Wei

Description

Gallery text from museum website:
Merchants trading in Silk Road goods, South and Central Asian Buddhist proselytizers, and pilgrims who had traveled to India to study Buddhism at its source brought countless paintings, scriptures, and small bronze sculptures to China and Tibet. These later served as the inspirations for works commissioned by local patrons. Few early Chinese and Tibetan bronze sculptures, and even fewer Indian prototypes, survive, as later generations melted them down to make coins, weapons, or new icons. The fine statues on display here may have been objects of devotion that were set in portable shrines, like the Korean example in the case to the right, for worship in lay people’s homes.

Iconclass

12HH13(...)
representations ~ goddesses, demi-goddesses, heroines etc. (APSARAS) (Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism)

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Pipa [3413]

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

Notes

Cultural style period: Northern Wei or Eastern Wei, 386-550

RIdIM record id

5701