Le forme della città Iran, Gandhāra e Asia Centrale Scritti offerti a Pierfrancesco Callieri in occasione del suo 65° compleanno. A cura di Luca Colliva, Anna Filigenzi, Luca Maria Olivieri con l’assistenza editoriale di Marco Baldi. ISMEO, Roma, 2023
Bridging Heaven and Earth. Art and Architecture in South Asia (South Asian Archaeology and Art 2016 Vol 2). Edited by L.R.Greaves and A. Hardy, 2020
The creation of monumental icons of the Buddha constitutes an important chapter in the history of... more The creation of monumental icons of the Buddha constitutes an important chapter in the history of Buddhist image worship. By the eight century colossal sculptures hewn from the living rock marked the Buddhist world from Central Asia to China, to Western India and Sri Lanka, yet the phenomenon of Buddhist monumentality has been largely overlooked. In Sri Lanka, the placement and function of colossal rock-cut sculptures in the landscape suggest that this type of images were closely linked to long distance travel and trade and formed a local network of monumentality interwoven with myth and with the formation of a Buddhist collective memory. Colossal sculptures proliferated at a time of great mobility across the Buddhist world, and they may have functioned also as visual markers within a transnational Buddhist network that spanned South Asia. The phenomenon of Buddhist monumentality is well attested on the island of Sri Lanka where gigantic sculptures of the Buddha carved from the living rock can be found in two main geographical regions: the North Central Province and the Uva Province (Fig. 1). In the North Central Province are the rock-cut standing Buddhas at Avukana and Sasseruva (also known as Ras Vehera), and the large parinirvana sculptures at Tantirimale, Ataragolleva and the famous Gal Vihara; in the Uva Province are the monumental images at Buduruvagala, Maligavela and Dova. 1 Given the number and relevance of sites associated with rock-cut monumentality in Sri Lanka, the present study will focus only on Avukana (Fig. 2) and Sasseruva (Fig. 3) located respectively in the districts of Anuradhapura and Kurunegala. Both sites were surveyed during a field research season sponsored by the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies in 2015. The diffusion of Buddhist colossal sculpture in Sri Lanka remains a remarkable phenomenon if one considers that the tradition of carving in the living rock was not very developed on the island prior to the seventh and eighth centuries. Since the inception of the phenomenon of forest monasticism in Sri Lanka, Buddhist caves consisted of simple rock shelters devoid of any sculptural decoration. The earliest examples of elaborate sculptures in the living rock can be seen at the vihara of Isurumunya in Anuradhapura where the visual idiom employed clearly relates to the Pallava traditions of South India. 2 Avukana The Buddhist site of Avukana is established on a rocky outcrop at a short distance from the Kalavava, a large water basin attributed to king Dhatusena in the fifth century CE. 3 The site, however, predates the establishment of the Kalavava tank as attested by the presence of early Brahmi inscriptions from a cluster of caves at the site. An epigraph mentions the existence in loco of a village tank called Kadapi run by a private
ndology's Pulse: Art in Contexts. Essays presented Doris Meth Srinivasan. Edited by Corinna Wessels-Mevissen and Gerd Mevissen, 2019
New archaeological finds from Swat, Pakistan, present us with the opportunity to reconsider the v... more New archaeological finds from Swat, Pakistan, present us with the opportunity to reconsider the visual lexicon employed to decorate the bases of Gandhāran stūpas. The findings of sculptural fragments reminiscent of throne legs placed on either side of stūpas' stairs suggest that the square bases of these monuments were conceptualized as thrones for the Buddhist relics contained in the dome. The classical imagery often embellishing these architectural elements may have been used semantically to reinforce the notion of royalty associated with the stūpa base as a throne for relics; in addition, it may have evoked worship and giving among the devotees. The springboard for such study lies in two recent finds uncovered at Amluk Dara in Swat, Pakistan, during recent archaeological excavations carried out by Dr Luca Olivieri, director of the ACT Project/Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan. The finds consist of two sculpted schist blocks, here identified as A and B (Fig. 7.1), unearthed respectively in SU (54) and on top of the staircase of the main Amluk Dara stūpa (Fig. 7.2). They consist of narrow rectangular blocks with curved ends in the shape of a reversed S (Fig. 7.3) (Brancaccio 2014). Originally each block had two side faces that were curved echoing the profile of a moulding; figures sculpted almost in the round project out from one of the curved faces. On Block A is carved a male character, unfortunately damaged, holding a club and a draped mantle, while on Block B is a female leaning over a column with a falling drape covering the lower part of her body. Over her right arm, bent and resting on the hip, hovers a small flying Eros. Unfortunately both the head of the winged creature and that of the female figure are obliterated. 1 The decoration of this piece is completed
The reliefs carved on the vedikā of the Bharhut stūpa in the Satna District of Madhya Pradesh are... more The reliefs carved on the vedikā of the Bharhut stūpa in the Satna District of Madhya Pradesh are some of the earliest artworks extant in India to articulate the Buddha's life stories and the essence of his teaching in a complex visual form. This article proposes that the reliefs from Bharhut depicting episodes from Śākyamuni's life and jātakas were informed by narrative practices established in the traditions of Buddhist recitation and performance. The inscriptions engraved on the Bharhut vedikā that function as labels for scenes, characters, and places, point to the use of specific storytelling strategies attested in oral recitation and picture scrolls that likely existed as aide-memoire.
In Vie della Seta: Percorsi, Immagini e Cultura Materiale, edited by B. Genito and L. Caterina, vol. 2, pp. 59-77. Roma: Scienza e Lettera Editore,, 2017
In The Last Phases of the Urban Site at Barikot and the Buddhist Sites of Gumbat and Amluk Dara, by Luca Maria Olivieri. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publishers, 2014
In Changing Forms and Cultural Identity: Religious and Secular Iconographies, edited by. D. Klimburg Salter and L. Lojda, vol. 1, pp. 91-98. Tunhout: Brepols., 2014
Le forme della città Iran, Gandhāra e Asia Centrale Scritti offerti a Pierfrancesco Callieri in occasione del suo 65° compleanno. A cura di Luca Colliva, Anna Filigenzi, Luca Maria Olivieri con l’assistenza editoriale di Marco Baldi. ISMEO, Roma, 2023
Bridging Heaven and Earth. Art and Architecture in South Asia (South Asian Archaeology and Art 2016 Vol 2). Edited by L.R.Greaves and A. Hardy, 2020
The creation of monumental icons of the Buddha constitutes an important chapter in the history of... more The creation of monumental icons of the Buddha constitutes an important chapter in the history of Buddhist image worship. By the eight century colossal sculptures hewn from the living rock marked the Buddhist world from Central Asia to China, to Western India and Sri Lanka, yet the phenomenon of Buddhist monumentality has been largely overlooked. In Sri Lanka, the placement and function of colossal rock-cut sculptures in the landscape suggest that this type of images were closely linked to long distance travel and trade and formed a local network of monumentality interwoven with myth and with the formation of a Buddhist collective memory. Colossal sculptures proliferated at a time of great mobility across the Buddhist world, and they may have functioned also as visual markers within a transnational Buddhist network that spanned South Asia. The phenomenon of Buddhist monumentality is well attested on the island of Sri Lanka where gigantic sculptures of the Buddha carved from the living rock can be found in two main geographical regions: the North Central Province and the Uva Province (Fig. 1). In the North Central Province are the rock-cut standing Buddhas at Avukana and Sasseruva (also known as Ras Vehera), and the large parinirvana sculptures at Tantirimale, Ataragolleva and the famous Gal Vihara; in the Uva Province are the monumental images at Buduruvagala, Maligavela and Dova. 1 Given the number and relevance of sites associated with rock-cut monumentality in Sri Lanka, the present study will focus only on Avukana (Fig. 2) and Sasseruva (Fig. 3) located respectively in the districts of Anuradhapura and Kurunegala. Both sites were surveyed during a field research season sponsored by the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies in 2015. The diffusion of Buddhist colossal sculpture in Sri Lanka remains a remarkable phenomenon if one considers that the tradition of carving in the living rock was not very developed on the island prior to the seventh and eighth centuries. Since the inception of the phenomenon of forest monasticism in Sri Lanka, Buddhist caves consisted of simple rock shelters devoid of any sculptural decoration. The earliest examples of elaborate sculptures in the living rock can be seen at the vihara of Isurumunya in Anuradhapura where the visual idiom employed clearly relates to the Pallava traditions of South India. 2 Avukana The Buddhist site of Avukana is established on a rocky outcrop at a short distance from the Kalavava, a large water basin attributed to king Dhatusena in the fifth century CE. 3 The site, however, predates the establishment of the Kalavava tank as attested by the presence of early Brahmi inscriptions from a cluster of caves at the site. An epigraph mentions the existence in loco of a village tank called Kadapi run by a private
ndology's Pulse: Art in Contexts. Essays presented Doris Meth Srinivasan. Edited by Corinna Wessels-Mevissen and Gerd Mevissen, 2019
New archaeological finds from Swat, Pakistan, present us with the opportunity to reconsider the v... more New archaeological finds from Swat, Pakistan, present us with the opportunity to reconsider the visual lexicon employed to decorate the bases of Gandhāran stūpas. The findings of sculptural fragments reminiscent of throne legs placed on either side of stūpas' stairs suggest that the square bases of these monuments were conceptualized as thrones for the Buddhist relics contained in the dome. The classical imagery often embellishing these architectural elements may have been used semantically to reinforce the notion of royalty associated with the stūpa base as a throne for relics; in addition, it may have evoked worship and giving among the devotees. The springboard for such study lies in two recent finds uncovered at Amluk Dara in Swat, Pakistan, during recent archaeological excavations carried out by Dr Luca Olivieri, director of the ACT Project/Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan. The finds consist of two sculpted schist blocks, here identified as A and B (Fig. 7.1), unearthed respectively in SU (54) and on top of the staircase of the main Amluk Dara stūpa (Fig. 7.2). They consist of narrow rectangular blocks with curved ends in the shape of a reversed S (Fig. 7.3) (Brancaccio 2014). Originally each block had two side faces that were curved echoing the profile of a moulding; figures sculpted almost in the round project out from one of the curved faces. On Block A is carved a male character, unfortunately damaged, holding a club and a draped mantle, while on Block B is a female leaning over a column with a falling drape covering the lower part of her body. Over her right arm, bent and resting on the hip, hovers a small flying Eros. Unfortunately both the head of the winged creature and that of the female figure are obliterated. 1 The decoration of this piece is completed
The reliefs carved on the vedikā of the Bharhut stūpa in the Satna District of Madhya Pradesh are... more The reliefs carved on the vedikā of the Bharhut stūpa in the Satna District of Madhya Pradesh are some of the earliest artworks extant in India to articulate the Buddha's life stories and the essence of his teaching in a complex visual form. This article proposes that the reliefs from Bharhut depicting episodes from Śākyamuni's life and jātakas were informed by narrative practices established in the traditions of Buddhist recitation and performance. The inscriptions engraved on the Bharhut vedikā that function as labels for scenes, characters, and places, point to the use of specific storytelling strategies attested in oral recitation and picture scrolls that likely existed as aide-memoire.
In Vie della Seta: Percorsi, Immagini e Cultura Materiale, edited by B. Genito and L. Caterina, vol. 2, pp. 59-77. Roma: Scienza e Lettera Editore,, 2017
In The Last Phases of the Urban Site at Barikot and the Buddhist Sites of Gumbat and Amluk Dara, by Luca Maria Olivieri. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publishers, 2014
In Changing Forms and Cultural Identity: Religious and Secular Iconographies, edited by. D. Klimburg Salter and L. Lojda, vol. 1, pp. 91-98. Tunhout: Brepols., 2014
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