ECHOES OF THE PAST

The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan

Thursday, February 24. 10 AM

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Join us at the Sackler for light refreshments, followed by formal remarks by Julian Raby, director of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, and Keith Wilson, exhibition curator, and associate director, and curator of ancient Chinese art.

RSVP to Amanda Williams at publicaffairsAsia@si.edu or 202.633.0271 by Tuesday, February 22.   

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Advance Exhibition Schedule 2011-2012 

ECHOES OF THE PAST

The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan

February 26-July 31, 2011| Sackler

Majestic sixth-century Chinese Buddhist sculpture is combined with 3-D imaging technology in this exploration of one of the most important groups of Buddhist devotional sites in early medieval China. Carved into the mountains of northern China, the Buddhist cave temples of Xiangtangshan (響堂山, pronounced "shahng-tahng-shahn") were the crowning cultural achievement of the Northern Qi dynasty (550-77 CE). Once home to a magnificent array of sculptures--monumental Buddhas, divine attendant figures, and crouching monsters framed by floral motifs--the limestone caves were severely damaged in the first half of the twentieth century, when their contents were chiseled away and offered for sale on the international art market.

Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan is organized by the Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Major funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Leon Levy Foundation, the Smart Family Foundation, and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. Additional support for the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery presentation is provided by the Cotsen Foundation for Academic Research.

The exhibition is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.