Excerpt from The Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin, Vol. 20: October, 1924

Chinese culture in Honan and Shensi, and the presence Of undoubted Six Dynasty cave chapels as well as traditionally T'ang and Sung temples establish the existence in early Kansu Of capable artisans. It is perhaps somewhat fanciful, though extremely tempting, to be lieve that the severely scorched area on the figure's forehead and right cheek happened during the Mohammedan Rebellion of 1870 which devastated Kansu and destroyed the great majority Of the early temples, with all their works Of art, that had survived up to that time.

In any case the Museum's bodhisattva was apparently one Of the attendants on either side of an altarpiece, flanking a larger cen tral figure of Amitabha, Maitreya, or Avalokitesvara. The peg pro j ecting from the base (thrust into the-present four-legged stand) was originally fitted into a lotus pedestal and carried either on a side bracket or, more probably, fixed to the main platform Of the altar. Though stylistically later, the form of the figure is very; suggestive Of the attendant bodhisattva on the Tuan Fang'é bronze altarpiece in the Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston.1 Even so, the whole group must have been exceptionally small; this attendant is but nine and a half inches tall, so the central figure could scarcely have exceeded a foot and a half in height, yet with suitably carved back and four or six attendant bodhisattva, guardian knights, kylins, and so forth, it was neverthe less impressive. But the interesting fact is that, while figures as small as this, and far smaller, are familiar enough in bronze, and in stone, as bas-reliefs, in wood they are virtually unknown, no matter what the dynasty may. Be. This is not unnatural, for the likelihood of small wood carvings surviving the effects Of time (and periodic politi cal convulsions) is remote. Further, artists were probably less tempted to use wood for small figures, inasmuch as the results were certain to be less impressive than if the figures were large, no matter how skillful was the craftsmanship. We may suppose, too, that the casters Of bronze fulfilled whatever demand there was for religious figures Of a diminutive size. And lastly, the labour Of laying gesso carefully over the carved surfaces (traces Of this still cling to parts of the Museum's figure) and Of applying the necessary pigment-col ours and gilding would scarcely have been worth the pains taken. We may, therefore, assume that woodcarvers in the main confined them selves to larger pieces, and even Of these extremely few early exam ples have survived.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.