Material Culture (Object) Project

In order to discover a hand-made object that was somewhat unfamiliar to me, I had to look no farther than the second floor of the second floor of the IU Art Museum. One work in the museum that instantly caught my eye was the “Walking Buddha” from the fourteenth century. According to the label attached to the stand on which the statue stood, this work was donated to the IU Art Museum by Kappa Kappa Gamma.

The “Walking Buddha” is a bronze statue that stands at about three feet in height and about a foot and a half at its widest point. The entire statue is grayish-black in color with a few specks of a brown. These specks seem more to be the result of the decay of the material rather than an intended facet of the design. The Buddha stands upright and appears to have somewhat elongated proportions. The only clothing worn by the figure is a sort of flowing robe that is wrapped around his lower torso and extends over his left shoulder. This causes the figure to appear as though it has a cape behind him that is waving from movement. It is quite probable that this element was included in the work to help create the illusion of movement. Sitting atop the head of the figure is what appears to be an object shaped somewhat like a spike. Upon closer inspection it is a small tongue of flame. This seems to be directly attached to the head of Buddha. For this reason it is somewhat unclear whether the top of his head is merely decorated with stylized hair, which consists of patterned, tight, short curls, or if this stylized hair is actually the decoration on a helmet of some sort on which the small flame is attached. The figure also is adorned with what appeared to be a piece of jewelry in the form of a metallic band around his neck. There was not much detail in this body adornment, so it was hard to discern its exact function of meaning. The torso and limbs are rather elongated and stylized. The torso is rather muscular, but the limbs are elongated and do not seem very naturalistic. The right arm is shaped in an odd, curving shape as it hangs loosely by the figure’s side. The top half of the left arm is parallel to the torso, but it is bent at the elbow as the lower half reaches out. The hand on this arm is pointed upwards so that it is parallel to the upper half of the arm. The tips of the index finger and the thumb are touching as to create a gesture of some sort. The right leg is bent backwards at the knee as to make it appear as though Buddha is walking. The left leg is perfectly erect rather than extended forward in order to make it seem as though he is walking. His has rather rounded features other than the sharp, delicate nose. The eyes are slightly disproportionately large and are closed, which may be intended to indicate that he is in a meditative state. The mouth is small and almost appears to be slightly smiling. The ears are one of the most notable features of this statue due to the fact that they are extremely elongated and do not look at all naturalistic. There is no real detail of the ears other than that they are a thin, crescent shape. They extend nearly to his shoulders, but they do not show signs of movement in the form of wrinkles or folds. The combination of delicate, stylized facial features and the body posture seems to create an image of the Buddha as a placid figure in a deep meditative state.


This blog entry is my 2nd Encounter Project: Material Culture (Object).