Weekend Stories
I enjoy going exploring on weekends (mostly). Here is a collection of stories and photos I gather along the way. All posts are CC BY-NC-SA licensed unless otherwise stated. Feel free to share, remix, and adapt the content as long as you give appropriate credit and distribute your contributions under the same license.
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Exploring the Alte Nationalgalerie
Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie houses a vast collection of 19th century paintings and sculptures. The building itself is a work of art, and the collection is a great opportunity to discover the history of art in Germany. Here are some snapshots of my recent visit.
Exploring the Renaissance at the Bode Museum
While the Bode Museum’s medieval collection invites introspection into the raw spiritual expressions of the Gothic era, its Renaissance collection beckons with a different allure. Here are some impressions I collected during my latest visit.
The Bode Museum: A new lens on medieval art
At the heart of Berlin’s Museum Island, the Bode Museum offers a unique opportunity to engage with Christian art. The museum’s collection of medieval art, in particular, provides an intriguing opportunity to explore these artifacts outside of their traditional religious context.
The three perfections: Chinese artistic tradition
In the rich Chinese cultural history, three art forms stand out as pillars of classical education and self-expression: poetry, calligraphy, and painting. Collectively, they are known as ‘The Three Perfections’, representing the culmination of Chinese artistic tradition.
Korean ceramics: Spirituality through simplicity and purity
Korean ceramics embody a serene beauty born from simplicity, clarity, and an embrace of natural imperfections. The Humboldt Museum showcases this centuries-old tradition, offering a reflective journey into Korea’s unique interpretation of art, nature, and spirituality.
The many faces of the Buddha
The Humboldt Forum in Berlin holds an extensive collection of Buddha and Bodhisattva sculptures from all over Southeast Asia: China, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Tibet, Nepal. In this post, I’d like to show the many faces of Buddhist sculptures that I have discovered in the Forum.
The Kizil Caves
The Kizil Caves are a set of Buddhist rock-cut caves situated near Kizil, Xinjiang, China. Historically significant and renowned for their intricate murals, these caves offer a fascinating glimpse into the rich murals and sculptures of Buddhism in China and Central Asia. Artifacts recovered from the caves are displayed alongside fragments of the murals at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin.
Buddhist clay tablets from Myanmar
Another quite interesting finding I made at the Humboldt Forum were some Buddhist clay tablets from Myanmar. I was impressed by the similarities with Christian panels depicting scenes from the life of Jesus, biblical events, or saints – another example of the universality of artistic expressions across diverse cultural traditions.
Gandhara-style Buddhist sculptures
This post ties directly into my previous on The first plastic depictions of Buddha’s life: Gandhara reliefs at the Humboldt Forum, Berlin. In this post, I showcase further, quite impressive Gandhara-style Buddhist sculptures also seen at the Humboldt Museum in Berlin.
The first plastic depictions of Buddha’s life: Gandhara reliefs at the Humboldt Forum, Berlin
On my visit to the Museum of Asian Art at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, I was captivated by 15 stone reliefs depicting the Buddha’s life. Crafted in Gandhara between the 1st and 3rd century, these reliefs are among the earliest narrative representations of the Buddha. Gandhara was more than just a region; it was a melting pot of civilizations, playing an indispensable part in shaping the visual language of Buddhism.