Search results for ""museum rietberg, switzerland""

First published a quarter of a 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, the Buddhist faith has not condemned the representation of holy beings or living creatures. Nonethless it believes that its most crucial spiritual insights lie beyond the power of human imagination to describe or depict. << 95 illustrations

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Under the patronage and with the participation of the ruler, festivals and ceremonies used to be lavishly celebrated in the former princely states of Rajasthan. Nowadays only few Maharajas and Maharaos take interest in rituals and can afford the time and expense. The royal family of Kotah, headed by H. H. Maharao Brijraj Singh, is an exception: Not only at Duserah, Divali and Holi does the entire family join in these celebrations, but even non-recurring events such as name giving ceremonies, marriages, and coronation ceremonies represent great festive occasions which are still undergone in style. This unique book with 167 colour plates is a compilation of the rituals and ceremonies observed by the royal family of Kotah. It is intended to benefit not only future generations of the Kotah family, but also those wanting to catch a glimpse behind the scenes otherwise hidden from the observer.

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According to a 1754 inscription, the ruling Rajah Umed Singh of Chamba commissioned this extraordinarily ornate wooden temple, and two artists, Gurdev and Jhanda, carried out the work. Despite the difficulty of gaining access to the shrine, 2,300m above sea level, the quality of these highly regarded reliefs is unique - nothing comparable in Chamba managed to withstand the fires and wars at the end of the 18th century. This book thoroughly publicises this important Hindu dtructure for the first time. << 248 illustrations

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The Admiralty Islands, a group of more than twenty islets with approximately 25,000 inhabitants, lie north of New Guinea in the southwest Pacific. Among the differnt artefacts of Melanesia, the objects from the Admiralty Islands form an independent group which can be clearly identified. It is only hear that one can find the typical large wooden bowls with carved spirals as handles, the unusual carve nape ornaments with feathers, and the aprons of snail shell discs, bark baskets and feathers designed for ceremonial presentations. This catalogue delineatesthe main characteristics of the art of the Admiralty Islands. It presents some 100 objects which rank among the best in the world. << 216 colour illustrations

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Around 1800, an anonymous engraver in Sharanakula, a small temple place on the southern coast of Orissa, illustrated a palm-leaf anthology of love poems. The one hundred Sanskrit quatrains, which are said to be the work of the 7th-century poet Amaru, describe the behaviour of enamoured couples, their longing for each other, the lovers' anxieties, their ecstatic joy as well as their doubts and sorrows.In India, these quatrains have at all times been cherished for their elegant language. Then, two hundred years ago, a great master-engraver visualised these verses in many small but meticulously executed and richly detailed illustrations. The erotic scenes in particular are of remarkable quality. While the verses are, without doubt, some of the greatest in the annals of Sanskrit literature, it is the illustrations of the work that have absorbed the authors here. The first part of the book is given to the poet and the poems, but then attention is turned to the intentions and acheivements of the painter. The authors attempt to follow his perception of the verses to comprehend how this Master visualised and rendered the refined Sanskrit verses into line drawings with such creative bearing and wit. 300 illustrations

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