Wall fragment with multiple Buddhas from the Longmen Grottoes

Object Details

• Description

  Fragment of wall with multiple Buddhas.

• Label

  This fragment came from the Longmen Buddhist cave-temple complex near Luoyang, Henan Province. Beginning in 493 and lasting almost four hundred years, Chinese imperial patronage at Longmen transformed the site into a richly endowed complex with over 2,300 caves and niches in cliff walls adorned with sculptures. In the early twentieth century some sculptures and fragments were removed from Longmen and entered the international antiquities market without proper identifications. Scholars today are trying to identify the original site of such objects.

  This image is likely to depict a motif known as the Three Thousand Buddhas in which small images of nearly identical, seated Buddhas are lined up along register lines and used as complementary imagery to larger Buddhist sculptures.

• Provenance

  To 1911

  Unnamed owner at K'ai-feng Fu, Honan, China, to 1911 [1]

  From 1911 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from an unnamed owner at K'ai-feng Fu, Honan, China, in 1911 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Miscellaneous List, S.I. 318, pg. 81, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Longmen Grottoes, Luoyang, Henan province, China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Sculpture

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  800s, 600s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, buddha

• Place

  Luoyang, Longmen Grottoes, China, Henan province

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Chinese Art, Tang dynasty (618 - 907), Stone

• Culture

  Buddhists, Chinese

• Object Type

  Sculpture