Buddha of Medicine Bhaishajyaguru (Yaoshi fo) Video Lecture - Humanities/Arts

[MUSIC PLAYING]
DR STEVEN ZUCKER: We're in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
looking at an enormous
wall painting on plaster.
DR JENNIFER N MCINTIRE:
This is from the east gable
of the Guangsheng Lower
Temple in Shanxi Province.
This temple was
rediscovered in the 1930s,
because a full set of
the Buddhist scriptures,
known as Sutras, was found
at this temple complex,
and it put this
monastery on the map.
The monks decided to
take down the murals
and sell them in order
to restore the building.
This was taken down
and, I believe,
sold to a dealer who then
sold it to Arthur Sackler.
And then in 1964,
Arthur Sackler gave it
to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER: It's gorgeous,
but it's so unusual for me.
I'm used to looking at
Chinese scroll painting.
How common is wall painting?
DR JENNIFER N
MCINTIRE: Actually,
the first important format
for painting in China
was wall painting.
And we know this
from textual sources
and have found secular subject
matter in the last 50 years
or so.
But in Northwest China,
the Mogao cave sites
have a huge encyclopedia,
really, of Buddhist wall
painting, stretching from the
fourth to the 14th century.
Palaces and temples all over
China had wall painting.
And wall painting was
a very important format
that has not survived.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER:
So this painting
is from the very
early 14th century.
And by this time,
Buddhism had been in China
for about 1,000 years.
So this is an extremely
well developed system
of representation.
DR JENNIFER N MCINTIRE: Yeah.
So this is from
the Yuan dynasty.
These were foreign
rulers in China.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER: So
when this was painted,
China was actually undergoing
a significant political
transformation.
The Mongols were now
in control of China,
as opposed to the Han.
DR JENNIFER N MCINTIRE: The
Mongols had unified China,
and in the court, a very
different style of painting
was adopted.
It was a style much
more associated
with Himalayan art, Tibetan art.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER: I'm seeing
this extraordinary contrast
between the bodhisattvas and
the representation of Buddha.
Buddha seems so spare.
It seems to be a very
restrained style, as opposed
to this dense costume
full of jewelry.
DR JENNIFER N
MCINTIRE: The Buddha
has relinquished
all worldly ties
and thus is presented
in the garb of a monk.
The bodhisattvas, while
highly enlightened beings,
have vowed to remain
in the earthly realm
to help all sentient beings
find release from Samsara, which
is the endless cycle of rebirth.
And in that regard,
they are presented still
in princely garb.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER: The Buddha is
represented in lotus posture.
DR JENNIFER N MCINTIRE: And
the hand gestures of the Buddha
are known as mudras, and often
the specific hand gestures
give us an indication of which
Buddha is being represented.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER: So
I'm a little confused,
because I'm looking at
this central Buddha,
I'm seeing the long earlobes,
I'm seeing the little rise
on the back of the
head, and I was
assuming that this was
the historic Buddha.
Are those characteristics
that are carried over
to other Buddhas as well?
DR JENNIFER N MCINTIRE:
Buddhism started
in the northern plains in
India and spread to China.
So initially the
Buddha was a person.
He was not a god.
That's the historical
Buddha, Shakyamuni.
He was born in the
foothills of the Himalayas.
As the religion
developed, the type
of Buddhism that spread in
China is called Mahayana.
In the Mahayana
belief system, there
are Buddhas presiding
over paradises everywhere.
This painting is most
likely a representation
of the assembly of
Bhaishajyaguru, the medicine
Buddha.
And the other central
thing to Mahayana Buddhism
is the bodhisattva, because
it's a religion of compassion,
and the bodhisattva is
a compassionate figure.
So a lot of worship was
focused on the bodhisattva
in Chinese Buddhism.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER:
As we move down,
we move from the
celestial representation
that we can see so clearly at
the top to a real structure.
You can see the
large bodhisattvas
and Buddha are seated
on lotus blossoms.
Then there's a
pedestal below that,
which is beautifully decorated.
And then below that,
we can see a series
of secondary attendants
seated at our level,
as the painting is
hung in a museum,
but would have been
still quite high.
DR JENNIFER N
MCINTIRE: Higher up.
You can see a whole
variety of offerings
that are isolated by a lotus
pedestal and a halo behind.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER:
Whether or not we're
looking at the large Buddha, the
bodhisattvas, or these figures
down at the bottom,
there's such an emphasis
on this beautiful
curvilinear form.
Almost everything is outlined
with this very hard contour.
DR JENNIFER N MCINTIRE:
That's particularly
apparent in the scarves that
drape off all the figures.
You can see the
movement and the flow
is articulated through line.
Look at the way the fullness
of the figures is articulated.
It also comes back to this
thickening and thinning line.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER: But then also
there's this fabulous color.
DR JENNIFER N
MCINTIRE: The color
would have obviously
been much more vibrant.
And you think of it
in the temple complex,
it would have been in a space
with other mural paintings
but also with sculpture
that would also
have been highly pigmented.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER: This is
for a monastic environment.
Is this meant to be instructive?
DR JENNIFER N MCINTIRE:
Buddhist painting
was created by craftsmen,
overseen by monks making sure
that the iconography
was correct.
Buddhist sculpture
and Buddhist painting
was used for didactic purposes.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER: There's
such specific iconography.
I find it fascinating that
even now we're still not
quite sure what the subject is.
DR JENNIFER N MCINTIRE:
I think it's interesting
that in Chinese Buddhist
art there are still
a lot of avenues for research.
DR STEVEN ZUCKER: It's
an important reminder
that art history
is a living thing.
We still change our minds.
[MUSIC PLAYING]