votive panel; 木板畫(Chinese) BM-1907-1111.67

Period:Unknown Production date:6thC (Whitfield 1985)
Materials:wood, 木 (Chinese),
Technique:painted
Subjects:buddha 佛 (Chinese)
Dimensions:Height: 26.30 centimetres Width: 13.10 centimetres Depth: 1.50 centimetres

Description:
Rectangular votive panel showing a standing Buddha on both sides. On one side the Buddha wears a red robe and stands within an oval vesica. On the other side the Buddha wears nothing but a loin cloth. This figure can be identified as the Cosmic Buddha Vairocana from details such as the vajra (thunderbolt) on the forearm and the double rings on the upper legs. Painted in ink and colours on wood.
IMG


Comments:EnglishFrom Whitfield 1985:Each side of this plaque carries a figure of the Buddha in an identical standing position, the right hand in abhaya-mudra, conferring absence of fear. On the side seen here, he is clad in a red robe, within an oval vesica which has lost all pigment. The details of the face are outlined in red on a white ground, while the folds of the robe are in ink. On the other side (Fig. 95). The Buddha is unclad save for a loin cloth; the hands are in the same mudra. Much of the white pigment has been lost, but a few details such as the vajra on the forearm and the double rings on the upper legs show that this is Vairocana, the Buddha in his cosmic aspect, with various forms (in which he may exist) depicted on, meaning within, his body.Eiichi Matsumoto, in a series of articles in 1936 (Kokka, nos. 548, 549, 551), was the first to point out the importance of Khotan as a centre of the Avatamsaka Sutra and in its eastward propagation from the fifth century or even earlier until the close of the eighth century. Between A.D. 418 and 421 the first Chinese translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra was made by Buddhabhadra from a Sanskrit version of the sutra obtained from Khotan. More recently, the problems of the iconography of Khotanese Buddhism have been explored by Joanna Williams (1973, pp. 117-24), who was able to find still more examples of the Cosmic Vairocana among the extant remnants of the art of Khotan. Those shown in this volume include a fragment of a wall painting from Khadalik (Pl. 53-4) and a plaque from Farhad-beg-yailaki (Pl. 72), as well as the present example. Still other wall paintings and plaques have been published by Gerd Gropp (1974; see especially pp. 132-33).The style revealed in these two figures shows little evidence of Chinese influence. The whole of each figure conforms closely to the shallow curves of the surrounding vesica; the legs are almost straight, the arms held close to the sides, the head a large oval with features almost geometrically disposed. In the robed figure of Pl. 71 the drapery lines still echo fairly closely the classical Gandharan arrangement, the left hand holding a loop of robe. At Dunhuang we find more movement even in the figures of the earliest caves, while the first example of the Cosmic Vairocana, from Cave 428 of the Northern Zhou (A.D. 550-57) already shows a more developed type of Vairocana, no longer naked but clad in an ample robe on which are depicted scenes of Mt. Sumeru (Chugoku Sekkutsu, Tonko Makkokutsu, Vol. 1, Pl. 162). Thus the sixth century would appear to be the latest possible date for the plaque. ChineseFrom Whitfield 1985:此木板畫的兩面都繪著右手結施無畏印的佛立像。本圖所揭示的面上，佛穿赤褐色衣，有橢圓形頭光，但頭光的顔色幾乎全部殘失。佛的臉部則是在白底上施以紅色的輪廓線，衣褶則用墨綫。背面（Fig. 95）的佛是以布纏腰的裸身，手印與前相同，白色顔料大多已脫落，從前膊的金剛杵及膝蓋上方雙層的輪等特徵可看出是毘廬遮那佛，身上畫著各種形象（其中也包括佛）。松本榮一博士于1936年發表的一系列論文（《國華》，第548、549、551號）中首次指出了于闐作爲《華嚴經》中心的重要性，以及《華嚴經》的東漸是從5世紀或稍早些到8世紀末。而418年至421年間佛馱跋陀羅首次進行的《華嚴經》漢譯，也是譯自從于闐獲得的梵文經典。對於和田的佛教圖像，近年Joanna Williams進行了調查（參照《和田佛教美術的圖像》，1973年，頁117-124），從大量和田繪畫中發現了許多毘廬遮那佛像。本書所舉出的毘廬遮那佛像的作品，除本圖外，還可見於喀達里克的壁畫斷片（圖53－4）以及法哈特伯克亞依拉克（末城）的木板畫（圖72），而在Gerd Gropp的著作（1974年，特別是頁132-133）中還其他壁畫和木板畫的例子。這兩個圖像在風格上幾乎感覺不到中國影響的因素。身體恰好容在用流暢的線條繪的身光裏，兩腿筆直，兩臂緊貼在身體兩側，橢圓形的頭部幾乎是用幾何圖案處理的。圖71左手所執衣邊的衣紋處理，可看出古典的犍陀羅雕刻殘影。在敦煌，早期石窟造像就有比此有發展的造像。在北周時期（550～557年）的第428窟展示了成熟的毘盧遮那佛造像，不裸身，著衣，衣上還畫有須彌山（參照《中國石窟 敦煌莫高窟》第1卷，圖162）。從上所述，可以考慮此木板畫最遲在6世紀就出現了。 The Department of Asia would like to thank Xanthe Carmichael for her help with updating the information on the site of Dandan-Uiliq.