Orientalised Hellenism versus Hellenised Orient:Reversing the Perspective on Gandharan Art

Filigenzi, Anna

doi:10.1163/157005712x638663

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…For critical assessments of approaches to Gandharan art framed by the dichotomy between West and East see Taddei 1980;Filigenzi 2012;Falser 2015;Pons 2017. Besides these considerations more specifically related to Gandharan studies, the DiGA Project endeavours to preserve and make widely accessible a significant facet of the cultural heritage of Pakistan. The Buddhist art of Pakistan, as other tangible and intangible assets of Pakistani cultural heritage, has incurred decades of unscientific exploration, looting and armed conflicts, resulting in its gradual dismantling, dispersal, and destruction.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Seven Steps: Building the DiGA Thesaurus

Autiero,

Elwert,

Moscatelli

et al. 2023

Journal of Open Humanities Data

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This article presents the creation of the 'Digitization of Gandharan Artefact Thesaurus', a digital resource for the description of Gandharan art and -more generally -of Buddhist art. It was developed by the project 'Digitisation of Gandharan Artefacts: A project for the preservation and the study of the Buddhist art of Pakistan' (DiGA). This work has been realized by walking Seven Steps, a serendipitous coincidence pairing our work to a famous episode in the early life of the Buddha. Our Seven Steps are:1. Collection and selection of sources, both digital and printed. 2. Creation of the core of the Thesaurus by digitizing the Repertorio Iconografico per la schedatura dell'arte gandharica. 3. Modifying, enriching, and structuring the Repertorio in RDF/SKOS. 4. Implementation of a hierarchy of concepts for narrative scenes ("narratives"). 5. Implementation of a hierarchy of concepts for characters ("figures"). 6. Comparison and reconciliation with other already existing digital thesauri. 7. Collaboration with other projects and institutions.The DiGA Thesaurus marks an important milestone towards a new vision of Gandharan studies in which the availability of digitized collections will foster new insights and understanding. Already during the creation of the Thesaurus, exciting new perspectives have opened in the field of both Gandharan studies and digital humanities.

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confidence: 99%

The Seven Steps: Building the DiGA Thesaurus

Autiero,

Elwert,

Moscatelli

et al. 2023

Journal of Open Humanities Data

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“…These archaeological data provide rare, precious benchmarks for a relative chronology of the entire Gandharan production. See Faccenna (1995Faccenna ( , 2001; Filigenzi (2006aFiligenzi ( , 2012. Figure 3.10: A relief with "biographic scenes" (below) and ceremonial scenes (above).…”

Section: Revelry Scenes In Gandharan Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

3. Non-Buddhist Customs of Buddhist People: Visual and Archaeological Evidence from North-West Pakistan

Filigenzi¹

2019

Buddhism and the Dynamics of Transculturality

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In the rich repertoire of the Buddhist art of Gandhāra, 1 a special place is occupied by what we usually call "Dionysiac scenes," where different characters are portrayed in the act of drinking, dancing, performing more or less explicit erotic gestures that are a prelude to sexual intercourse, or engaged in social ceremonies of unknown nature. When considered together and analysed more closely, these scenes reveal a typological variety that no doubt reflects different layers of meaning. Besides not fitting into any unitary picture, such themes cannot be easily reconciled with our idea of ancient Buddhism. Nevertheless, the association of Buddhist Note: An abridged and slightly different version of this paper was published in French (Filigenzi 2016). The contents were first outlined in the framework of the workshop At the Foothills of the Hindukush: Art and Archaeology of the Swat Valley, Pakistan (Drexel University, Philadelphia, May 7, 2011), and further developed on the occasion of the International Symposium Buddhism and the Dynamics of Transculturality (Internationales Wissenschaftsforum Heidelberg, 11th-13th June 2012). I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the organisers of these events, Pia Brancaccio and Birgit Kellner respectively, for encouraging this line of research and providing the best opportunity to discuss it with colleagues from different disciplinary fields. My deepest gratitude also goes to Pierfrancesco Callieri and Luca Maria Olivieri for their scientific advice and suggestions, as precious as ever. I am also indebted to Lorenzo Costantini for helping me to address specific palaeo-bothanic issues, and to Laura Giuliano for her kind assistance at the Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale "Giuseppe Tucci," Rome. Special thanks go to Max Klimburg, who generously gave me access to the pre-print version of his article (Klimburg 2014). His presentation at the conference Wine Culture in Iran and Neighbouring Countries (Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, 16th-17th September 2010), on which that publication is based, was indeed revelatory of the connections between the iconographies discussed here and the Kafir folklore. 1 The term "Gandharan art" is used here in its historicised meaning, which is purely conventional and traditionally accepted by scholars as the more adaptable to an artistic phenomenon that has been recognised, although with distinct regional characteristics, in wider territories than the Peshawar Valley. In this usage (which, I would like to clarify on behalf of nonspecialists, was adopted with full consciousness and not without criticism) "Gandharan art" includes art from neighbouring regions such as Swat, Panjab and Eastern Afghanistan, and is roughly encompassed within the Kushan time frame (1 st to 3 rd century CE). I refer the reader to the brilliant synthesis in Zwalf (1996, 11-19).

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“…Gandharan sculpture has been studied primarily from an iconographic point of view (see for example [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]). Research shows that this Buddhist ancient art, which developed in the Himalayan area (modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan) in the early centuries CE, was influenced by Greco-Roman, Iranian, Indian and Central Asian artistic cultures (see for example [1,[9][10][11]). Originally, these sculptures were very different in appearance compared to what is observable today.…”

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confidence: 99%

An Insight into Gandharan Art: Materials and Techniques of Polychrome Decoration

et al. 2022

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Gandharan art developed in the Himalayan area in the early centuries CE. It has been investigated mostly from an iconographic point of view, missing, until very recently, a systematic technical investigation of materials and techniques. Recently our team began performing chemical analyses of the traces of the polychromy originally covering statues, reliefs and architectural decorations, to discover the ancient painting techniques and artistic technologies. This paper presents the results of the analytical investigation (optical microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry) of pigments, ground layers and binders of a new group of samples taken from stucco architectural decorations (2nd–3rd/4th centuries CE). The samples were collected directly at an archaeological site in the Swat Valley, ensuring the exact knowledge of their stratigraphic provenance, as well as the absence of any restoration treatment applied prior sampling. The results are discussed in the wider context of Gandharan polychromy investigated so far by our team, as found in sculptures and architectural decorations preserved in museums (in Italy and France) and in archaeological excavations in Pakistan. The aim of this research is to shed light on the materials and techniques of this Buddhist ancient art from this region and on the influences exerted on it from Eastern and Western artistic traditions.

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Orientalised Hellenism versus Hellenised Orient:Reversing the Perspective on Gandharan Art

Cited by 5 publications

References 3 publications

The Seven Steps: Building the DiGA Thesaurus

The Seven Steps: Building the DiGA Thesaurus

3. Non-Buddhist Customs of Buddhist People: Visual and Archaeological Evidence from North-West Pakistan

An Insight into Gandharan Art: Materials and Techniques of Polychrome Decoration

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