Left: Sakyamuni Buddha (late Zhau dynasty, Period of Disunity), 338, gilded bronze Right: Colossal Buddha Amitabha (Northern Wei period), (Yungang, China), c. 460-493 CE

Meditating Buddha, from Gandhara, Pakistan, second century CE Meditating Buddha, from Gandhara, Pakistan, second century CE. Gray Schist Shakyamuni Buddha, Zhao Dynasty, From period of Six Dynasties, 338. Gilded bronze

Standing Buddha (Wei dynasty), 477 CE, gilt bronze

Vairocana Buddha at the Longmen Caves (Tang dynasty) (Luoyang, China) , c. 670-680 CE

Tang dynasty/ arrival of Buddhism in China/ suppressed surface detail in the interest of monumental simplicity

Right: Great Wild Goose pagoda (Tang dynasty), c. 652-704 CE

Way of Souls leading to the Qianling tomb complex of Emperor Li Zhi (Xi’an), late seventh century CE

Neighing Horse (Tang dynasty), eighth to ninth centuries, glazed earthenware importance of the horse in the Tang dynasty/ allowing lead glazes to “run”(sancai)/ created for burial tombs

Left: Nuyong lady from the Tang dynasty Center below: Wenguan funerary figures Right below: Camel from the Tang dynasty

Han Kan. Night Shining White (Tang dynasty), c Han Kan. Night Shining White (Tang dynasty), c. 742-756 CE, ink on paper

Han Huang. The Five Bullocks (Tang dynasty), ink and color on silk

Han Huang. Garden with Literati, 723-787 CE

Paradise of Amitabha (Tang dynasty) (Dunhuang, China), ninth century, wall painting Dunhuang/ Pure Sect of Buddhism/ Tang style palace architecture

Brightly painted beams of a Chinese monastery

Fan Kuan. Travelers among Mountains and Streams (Northern Song dynasty), early eleventh century, hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk Fan Kuan/ Northern Song Dynasty/ Daoism/ painting on silk/ “li” and “qi”/ humans in the vast scale of nature/ a shifting perspective/ use of mist to separate the background from the foreground/ Neo-Confucianism

Guo Xi. Early Spring, 1000-1090 CE, ink on silk Guo Xi/ Daoist paradise and an interest in seasonal change/ three types of distance (high, deep, and level)/ inclusion of seals and inscriptions on paintings/ focus on intricate details and the character of each line

Song Huizong. Detail of Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk, early twelfth century CE Song Huizong, the emperor artist/ Chinese view of copying earlier works

Song Huizong. The Five-Color Parakeet (Northern Song dynasty), c Song Huizong. The Five-Color Parakeet (Northern Song dynasty), c. 1100-1125, hanging scroll

Foguang Si Pagoda (Liao dynasty)(Yingxian, China), 1056 the pagoda / projecting eaves and cantilevered balconies/ the axis mundi

Ma Yuan. Bare Willows and Distant Mountains (Southern Song dynasty), thirteenth century CE, album leaf, ink and colors on silk Ma Yuan/ Southern Song court style/ composed on a diagonal to form the Mia/Xia style

Schematic version of a one corner composition by Ma Yuan, based on the On a Mountain Path in Spring