Flying Apsaras with a Dish of Fruit
Flying Apsaras with a Dish of Fruit
Place of OriginChina, Cisheng si Temple in Wenxian
DateNorthern Song Dynasty (960-1279), 10th century
DimensionsInside frame: 16 × 23 1/4 in. (40.6 × 59.1 cm)
Frame: 19 1/4 × 26 1/2 in. (48.9 × 67.3 cm)
Frame: 19 1/4 × 26 1/2 in. (48.9 × 67.3 cm)
MediumFresco
ClassificationPaintings
Credit LineGift of C. T. Loo
Object number
1951.366
Not on View
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Label TextBuddhist and Hindu imagery from India influenced this fresco, which reportedly came from a Buddhist temple complex, Cisheng Si, in Henan Province near the border of Shanxi Province in China. An apsara (feitian in Mandarin) is a female spirit of the clouds and water, usually shown flying around a divinity. They figure in both Indian Hindu and Buddhist belief and were adopted in Chinese Buddhism when the Buddhist faith arrived in China from India along the ancient Silk Roads, probably in the 1st century CE. To create such fresco images on temple walls, first the walls were covered in mud mixed with straw. Then a layer of clay was applied, over which was added a smooth layer of lime onto which the image was painted.- Paintings
Northern Song Dynasty (960-1279), 10th century
Northern Song Dynasty (960-1279), 952
about 1250-1275
First century CE
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