Sonya Rhei Quintanilla and Nancy Tingley: "Understanding Buddhist Art: Ancient India"
Abstract:
The birth of the Buddha in the 6th century BCE not only set in motion the wheel of his teachings, but also gave rise to a rich tradition of art and architecture meant to elucidate his words: temples, stupa (reliquary mounds), monasteries, and sculptures of the Buddha. The cultural impact of Indian Buddhism extended beyond religious sites, as political rulers such as Emperor Asoka popularized Buddhist ideals as part of his political agenda in the mid 3rd century BCE.
The earliest Buddhist art omitted human images of the Buddha, though the development of his image by the 2nd century ce gave rise to a multitude of images in sites throughout the subcontinent. By the 4th century ce, the emphasis of much Buddhist thought had shifted, and new directions in Buddhist practice required representations of an ever-growing pantheon of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Much of what we are able to discern of Buddhism of the period from the 4th through the 12th centuries is revealed through a study of this fascinating and beautiful sculpture.
Bios:
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.
Nancy Tingley (Independent Scholar & Art Historian) is an independent scholar who received a PhD in art history from UC Berkeley, specializing in Indian Buddhist art. As a curator, she is currently involved in projects with the Asian Art Museum, in San Francisco, where she was formerly Wattis Curator of Southeast Asian Art; the Dallas Museum of Art; Asia Society, New York; and the Crocker Art Museum, in Sacramento. Her publications include Doris Duke: The Southeast Asian Collection. She most recently taught at UC Berkeley.