Les Buddhas Shandong (The Shandong Buddhas)

Edited by Gilles Béguin

星期二 01 九月 2009

Broché
ISBN : 978-2-7596-0110-3
39 €
160 pages
80 illustrations

In 1996, workmen in Qingzhou (Shandong Province) discovered a pit covering an area of 60 square metres and 2 metres deep. Inside were hundreds of carefully arranged fragments of Buddhist statues. Dating mostly from the 6th century AD, these artefacts illustrate one of the greatest periods of Chinese statuary.

The practice of burying damaged works is recorded in texts. The Qingzhou discovery was nevertheless a real surprise, both in terms of quantity and also the quality of the sculptures. Parts of the polychrome decoration of these elegantly executed works were remarkably well preserved.

This volume offers readers a first opportunity to appreciate and admire this archaeological discovery that is essential to the history of 20th-century Asian art.