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Location: British Museum

mogao grid — A fragmentary silk painting tells us about Buddhist art along the Silk Roads, numerous Buddhist sacred icons, and the complex life of an object after its creation.

A silk painting of sacred Buddhist images ...

Positioned at the crossroads of Asia, Gandhara has always been an ancient transit zone—as we see in this sculpture of the Buddha

Head of the Buddha, Gandhara

by The British Museum

korea painting grid buddhist — The huge size of the canvas, the dynamic and decorative lines, and the combination of mineral colors are typical of Buddhist paintings from Korea.

Dhratarastra, Guardian King of the East

by The British Museum

This handscroll is an extremely valuable example of Korean calligraphy

Yun Baek-ha, a calligraphic handscroll

by The British Museum

confucian scholar grid — Earlier Korean portraits were more interested in capturing a sense of the sitter's 'spirit' rather than in portraying an actual physical likeness such as this one from the 18th century

Yi Che-gwan, Portrait of a Confucian scholar

by The British Museum

grid ghana coffin — This wooden coffin in the form of eagle with painted gold feather markings was made in the village of Teshie in Ghana.

Coffin in the shape of an eagle

by The British Museum

In medieval Korea, wine bottles were known as maebyong, which comes from the Chinese mei-ping ('vase for plum blossoms'), a misnomer dubbed by Chinese scholars of the Qing dynasty.

Maebyong vases, an introduction

by The British Museum

Kabuki theatre's leading actors influenced fashion and taste and quickly became the subject of popular woodblock prints in Japan

Kabuki actor prints

by The British Museum

casket grid — A casket made for secular use is decorated with lively scenes of combat, music, dance and love.

Casket with troubadours

by The British Museum

The anonymous figure depicted in this painting embodies the fashion of Isfahan, Iran’s capital city under the rule of Shah 'Abbas I

Riza-yi ‘Abbasi, portrait of a young page ...

by The British Museum

34198001 grid — The single page format of this painting shows the trend among seventeenth-century art patrons to collect particularly fine examples of drawing, painting or calligraphy on single pages

Mir Afzal of Tun, a reclining woman ...

by The British Museum

Rizaa-yi Abbasi grid — Riza-yi ʿAbbasi is famous for his drawings of individual or paired figures on single pages

Riza-yi ʿAbbasi, Seated calligrapher

by The British Museum

toyo grid — Sesshu Toyo's painting involves a remarkable economy of brushwork, often called haboku (broken ink) or hatsuboku (flung ink).

Sessō Tōyō, Haboku-style landscape

by The British Museum

moon jar grid — This moon jar is made of plain white porcelain, and it represented the epitome of austere Confucian taste in Joseon Korea

White porcelain ‘moon jar’

by The British Museum

chaekkori grid — An array of items from the scholar's decorate this type of Korean screen

Chaekgeori-type screen

by The British Museum

Inlaid bird bowl, Possibly 18th century AD, wood, inlaid with shell, from Belau, Micronesia, 93 x 53 cm (with lid), collected by Captain Henry Wilson (© The Trustees of the British Museum) — The finely carved wooden bowl is shaped like a bird and was used as a container for sweet drink.

Inlaid bird bowl, from Belau

by The British Museum

hittite grid — Between 1400 and 1200 B.C.E. the Hittites established one of the great empires of the ancient Middle East.

Hittites, an introduction

by The British Museum

Xie Chufang, Fascination of Nature, a handscroll painting, Yuan dynasty, dated 1321, China, 28.1 x 352.9 cm (© The Trustees of the British Museum) — A rare Yuan dynasty painting shows animals and insects feeding off each other.

Xie Chufang, Fascination of Nature, handscroll

by The British Museum

Admonitions Scroll (detail), attributed to Gu Kaizhi (about 345–406), Tang dynasty, 6th–8th century C.E., China, 24.37 x 343.75 cm (© The Trustees of the British Museum) — The Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies is an eighth-century copy of the earliest and finest painting attributed to Gu Kaizhi, and illustrates a political parody

Admonitions Scroll, attributed to Gu Kaizhi

by The British Museum

qian xuan grid — A literati painter, Qian painted landscapes, historical figures and flowers.

Qian Xuan, Young nobleman on horseback, handscroll

by The British Museum

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