The author is the professor and chair of the Department of East Asian Art History at the Freie Universitaet Berlin in Germany.
關鍵詞
meander ornament; transcultural; Buddhist art; comparative; architecture
摘要
Beyond iconographic dimensions, the ornaments in Buddhist art become apparent through the depicted figures and their fashion, as well as other pictorial, architectural elements including patterns and motifs. Taking the meander ornament as an example, it is used as an icon in Buddhist art, however early Buddhist texts and local chronicles provide information on neither its origin nor its meaning; therefore we often have to deal with upper and lower very clichéd connotation. In this paper, the aesthetical and art historical value of the meander ornament, up until the twelfth century CE, based on the selected example, as a phenomenon of cultural transmission and intertwinement is to be discussed with regard to the cultural ‘originality’ and ‘diversity’ among the cultural traditions of the ‘West’ and ‘East’. It reveals the essential process of how ‘foreign’ images were transmitted and reproduced at the ‘local’ (Central and East Asia) religious space, at the same time, how implicated images had functioned as a medium of communication during the transmission.
目次
How Did Academic Debate over Meander Ornaments in Europe Begin? 112 How Can We Understand the Terms for Ornament Meander or Huiwen? 113 Where and in What Ways Did Buddhist Art Use Ornament Meanders? 115 Where Do These Meander Patterns Come From—China, Greece, or Other Regions? 120 What Does This Mean, Especially in the Context of Buddhism? 126
