Sonya Quintanilla: "The Inauspicious Image"

Date
Friday November 14th 2008, 4:15PM
Event Sponsor
Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford
Location
Encina Hall West, Room 208
Sonya Quintanilla: "The Inauspicious Image"

Abstract:

The proliferation of images of the Buddha and Buddhist monks did not occur in Indian art until about seven hundred years after the time of the Buddha. This lecture explores the reasons behind the slow emergence of clerical imagery and the early struggles the Buddhist community had in formulating an appropriate icon as a focus for worship.

Bio:

Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, (Curator of Asian Art, San Diego Museum of Art) received a PhD in South Asian art history from Harvard. Prior to joining SDMA, she taught South Asian art history at UC Irvine and as a visiting professor at UCLA. She has lectured widely and published on many aspects of early Indian art. Her recently published book, History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura, ca. 150 BCE–100 CE, provides the first comprehensive chronology of the earliest-known stone sculptures from the north Indian city of Mathura. Sonya Quintanilla, Curator of Asian Art, San Diego Museum of Art. Dr. Quintanilla will explore the reasons behind the early struggles of the Buddhist community in formulating an appropriate icon of the Buddha as a focus for worship and the slow emergence of clerical imagery.