Ceiling Relief of a Flying Apsara
CultureChinese
Dateca. 570 C.E.
MediumBuff-gray, coarse sandstone
DimensionsOverall: 28 × 33 1/2 × 1 3/4 inches (71.12 × 85.09 × 4.45 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number33-535
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 204
Collections
Gallery LabelA group of flying apsaras, some with musical instruments, decorated the ceilings of some cave chapels at Tianlongshan. The low relief, the shape of the face, emphasis on reiterated flowing linear rhythms, and certain naïvetés, such as the elongated fingers, are stylistic features that suggest the dating given above.
Tianlongshan, Shanxi province, China;
With Dr. Otto Burchard, Peiping (Beijing) China, by March 31, 1933 [1];
Purchased from Burchard, through Langdon Warner and Laurence Sickman, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.
NOTES:
[1] Letter from Laurence Sickman to Langdon Warner, March 31, 1933, Harvard University, Pusey Library, Langdon Warner Archive, Box 12, Folder 19, copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial file.
P. C. Beam, The Language of Art (New York: 1958), 311, fig. 171 (repro.).
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please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.
early 6th century C.E.
51-27
