Atlantean Figure of a Winged Demon

CultureChinese

DateNorthern Qi dynasty (550-577 C.E.)

MediumLimestone

DimensionsOverall: 34 × 27 × 10 inches (86.36 × 68.58 × 25.4 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number35-276

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionFigure of a demon, intended to serve as a support for an engaged column. Body with wings, large horns, three fingers, and two toes; with shoulders hunched and arms braced on thighs.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Echoes of the Past: the Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan, Institute for the Sstudy of the Ancient World, New York University, New York, New York, September 11, 2012 - January 6, 2013.

Gallery Label

In its original architectural setting in the cave chapel of Xiangtangshan, this figure was one of several atlantes supporting engaged columns on their necks. The position with shoulders hunched and arms braced on the thighs suggests the burden of the columns they support. Such demons, always with three fingers and two toes, are associated with thunder and lightning or with subterranean spirits. Because of this they are appropriate to the lowest level of decoration, with the images of the higher gods and beings above them. The simple disposition of volume into compact masses, together with the schematic, almost decorative, articulation of detail is typical of the period and of much sculpture from Xiangtangshan.

Provenance

Xiangtangshan, Hebei province, China;

Art market, Colombo, Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka), by 1935 [1];

Purchased on the Colombo art market, through Laurence Sickman, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.

NOTES:

[1] Nelson-Atkins Archives, RG01/01 Director's Office Records, Paul Gardner, box 4, folder 41, 1935 Sickman purchases en route.

Published References

Mizuno Seiichi and Tokiwa Nagahiro, The Buddhist Cave-temples of Hsiang-t’ang-ssu on the Frontier of Honan and Hopei (Kyoto: The Academy of of Oriental Culture Kyoto Institute, 1937), pls. 57, 58 (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection ( New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 305 (repro.).

Zhang Lintang and Sun Di, Xiangtangshan shiqu: liushi haiwai shike zaoxiang yanjiu (Beijing: Waiwen chubanshe, 2004), 225, fig. 90 (repro.).

Amy McNair, “The Ending of the Law and the Hope of Salvation: Some 6th Century Chinese Buddhist Sculptures in The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art” Orientations Vol. 39, no. 8 (November/December 2008), 81 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 315, fig. 100. (repro.).

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