Chinese Buddhist art history examines how imported iconographic and stylistic traditions (originating in South Asian, e.g. Gupta, Buddhist sculpture) are transformed as they are absorbed into indigenous Chinese material and aesthetic traditions, producing a distinctive Chinese sculptural style marked by flowing "waterfall" drapery, curvaceous dynamic line associated with the concept of qi (spirit-energy/animation), and continued use of bronze as a culturally significant medium linked to ancestral and spiritual authority. The domain is Buddhist art history within Chinese art history, and the concept relates to Buddhist iconography more broadly through the distinction between the historical Buddha (Shakyamuni) and other Buddha figures within Mahayana Buddhism (such as Amitabha, associated with the Western Pure Land), showing how doctrinal developments correspond to new representational subjects in art.
Chinese Buddhist art history examines how imported iconographic and stylistic traditions (originating in South Asian, e.g. Gupta, Buddhist sculpture) are transformed as they are absorbed into indigen…