Before and Beyond the Image: Aniconic Symbolism in Buddhist Art

by Dietrich Seckel, Andreas Leisinge (Translator), Helmut Brinker (Editor), John Rosenfield (Editor)

Overview

"Published a quarter-century ago, Dietrich Seckel's essay remains a vital contribution to a much-debated feature of Buddhist art, its aniconism, its aversion to depicting spiritual entities of the very highest order. Unlike Judaism, early Christianity, and Islam, he explains, the Buddhist faith has not condemned the representation of holy beings or living creatures. Nonetheless it believes that its most crucial spiritual insights lie beyond the power of human imagination to describe or depict; the visual arts can allude to them only obliquely, through omission on the use of non-iconic figures. This discrepancy between the practical, ritual functions of the work of art and concepts of ultimate sanctity, Seckel suggests, has affected Buddhist arts throughout Asia, particularly those of the Meditation School (Chan, or Zen) in China and Japan. " - From the Introduction

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783907077139
Publisher:	Paul Holberton Publishing
Publication date:	03/21/2008
Series:	Artibus Asiae Supplementum 45, Rietberg Museum
Pages:	108
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Introduction

ANICONISM IN EARLY BUDDHIST ART

—Basis in Doctrine and Worship

—Symbols in Scenes of the Life of the Buddha

—Groups and Combinations of Symbols

—Symbolism of a Cosmological and Universal Nature

—Variants of Meaning

—Genesis of the Buddha Image

ANICONISM IN LATER BUDDHIST ART

—A Principle that Transcends History

—Surviving Older Symbols

—New Sybols in Mahayana Buddhism

—Word, Letter, Sound

—Zen Symbols

Appendix

—Bibliography

—Glossary of Chinese-Japanese Characters

—Source of Illustrations