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Tythacott, Louise (2012) 'Classifying China: shifting interpretations of Buddhist bronzes in Liverpool Museum, 1867-1997.' In: Hill, Kate, (ed.), Museums and Biographies: Stories, Objects, Identities. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, pp. 173-185.

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Abstract

This chapter examines the lives of a set of five Chinese Buddhist deity figures in Liverpool Museum, from 1867 to 1997. The largest figure, an almost life-size bronze statue of the Goddess of Compassion, Guanyin, probably dates from the early fifteenth century. The other four – Wenshu, Puxian, Weituo and Guangong - are early-seventeenth-century creations. All five belonged to a temple on Putuo Island, off the east coast of China. For over a thousand years this was one of the most important Buddhist pilgrimage sites in the country, devoted to the worship of Guanyin. The statues were taken from their temple in the 1840s by a British soldier just after the First Opium War (1839-1842). Once transported to England, they appeared at the Great Exhibition in 1851, the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857, and were auctioned at Sotheby’s two years later. After passing through the hands of antiquarian collectors, the Chinese statues were accessioned into Liverpool Museum in 1867, where they remain to this day (Tythacott, 2009 [90-97]).

Item Type: Book Chapters
SOAS Departments & Centres: Departments and Subunits > School of Arts > Department of the History of Art & Archaeology
Legacy Departments > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Department of History of Art and Archaeology
ISBN: 9781843837275
Date Deposited: 21 Jul 2014 11:13
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/18674
Related URLs: http://www.boyd ... idProduct=13956 (Publisher URL)

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