Object Stories
Experimental templates for art
From East Asia, China, Gansu province, Dunhuang, after a long journey I arrived in a new home. It is such a different place—I’ve never seen such bright light and open space that endlessly unfolds. For the first time I live in a frame , which someone tailored exclusively for me. They are trying to blend me into the rest of the room with other objects that look familiar to me. Curious faces, alien and familiar, stop in front of me day to day and examine me so closely. I have never seen, or been seen, by so many people. I have been brought to a place that they call “museums.”
{
"id": 209167,
"objectid": 209167,
"objectnumber": "1924.40.1",
"accessionyear": 1924,
"dated": "7th century",
"datebegin": 600,
"dateend": 700,
"classification": "Paintings",
"classificationid": 26,
"medium": "Section of a wall painting; polychromy on unfired clay",
"technique": null,
"techniqueid": null,
"period": "Tang dynasty, 618-907",
"periodid": 372,
"century": "7th century",
"culture": "Chinese",
"style": null,
"signed": null,
"state": null,
"edition": null,
"standardreferencenumber": null,
"dimensions": "painting proper (irregular): H. 52.5 x W. 26.4 cm (20 11/16 x 10 3/8 in.)\r\nframed: H. 73.7 x W. 48.3 x D. 3.5 cm (29 x 19 x 1 3/8 in.)",
"copyright": null,
"creditline": "Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, First Fogg Expedition to China (1923-1924)",
"department": "Department of Asian Art",
"division": "Asian and Mediterranean Art",
"contact": "am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu",
"description": null,
"provenance": "From Mogao Cave 329, Dunhuang, Gansu province; acquired during the First Fogg Expedition to China (1923-24) led by Langdon Warner (1881-1955)",
"commentary": null,
"labeltext": "This mural section depicts a kneeling attendant presenting an offering to a bodhisattva who would have been seated to the left of the figure. Though now difficult to identify precisely, the offering seems to be a triple jewel, or triratna, which symbolizes the Three Jewels in which Buddhist worshippers take refuge: the Buddha, the Dharma (the Buddha’s teachings), and the Sangha (the Buddhist community, sometimes defined as monks and nuns, sometimes more generally as all enlightened beings). This section comes from a mural depicting Maitreya, a bodhisattva who currently resides in a distant heaven but who will one day be reborn into our world as the Buddha of the Future. In its original context, this figure was part of an entourage surrounding an attendant bodhisattva to Maitreya.",
"imagecount": 1,
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"peoplecount": 0,
"titlescount": 1,
"publicationcount": 2,
"exhibitioncount": 2,
"contextualtextcount": 0,
"groupcount": 1,
"relatedcount": 0,
"totalpageviews": 1841,
"totaluniquepageviews": 1231,
"dateoffirstpageview": "2009-05-12",
"dateoflastpageview": "2025-12-12",
"verificationlevel": 3,
"verificationleveldescription": "Good. Object is well described and information is vetted",
"imagepermissionlevel": 0,
"lendingpermissionlevel": 0,
"accesslevel": 1,
"accessionmethod": "Purchase",
"rank": 52541,
"url": "https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/209167",
"createdate": "1998-07-12T00:00:00-04:00",
"lastupdate": "2025-12-13T04:30:18-05:00",
"colors": [
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],
"exhibitions": [
{
"begindate": "2014-11-16",
"enddate": "2050-01-01",
"citation": "<em>32Q: 2740 Buddhist II</em>, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 12/02/2024; Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050",
"exhibitionid": 4477,
"title": "32Q: 2740 Buddhist II"
},
{
"begindate": "2025-01-25",
"enddate": "2025-05-11",
"citation": "<em>The Art of Looking: 150 Years of Art History at Harvard</em>, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/25/2025 - 05/11/2025",
"exhibitionid": 6476,
"title": "The Art of Looking: 150 Years of Art History at Harvard"
}
],
"gallery": {
"begindate": "2014-11-16",
"gallerynumber": "2740",
"galleryid": "2740",
"displayname": "Level 2, Room 2740, Buddhist Art",
"name": "Buddhist Art",
"theme": "The Efflorescence of East Asian and Buddhist Art",
"floor": "2",
"donorname": null
},
"groupings": [
{
"groupid": 2040174,
"name": "Google Art Project"
}
],
"images": [
{
"date": "2010-07-13",
"copyright": "President and Fellows of Harvard College",
"imageid": 375560,
"idsid": 17424309,
"format": "image/jpeg",
"description": "This image shows a person faceing to the left of hte image, kneeling on the ground, with their hands pressed together. The person has black hair going down their back and is wearing a green skirt and a brown and white robe. The background is mostly dark brown with a large blue spot infront of the person's head and a smaller red spot behind the person's head. The surface of the image is badly work and cracked ",
"technique": null,
"renditionnumber": "DDC110936",
"displayorder": 1,
"baseimageurl": "https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUAM:DDC110936_dynmc",
"alttext": "This image shows a person looking to the left of hte image, kneeling on the ground in green skirt, with their hands pressed together infront of them.",
"width": 1366,
"publiccaption": null,
"iiifbaseuri": "https://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/iiif/17424309",
"height": 2550
}
],
"primaryimageurl": "https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUAM:DDC110936_dynmc",
"places": [
{
"displayname": "East Asia, China, Gansu province, Dunhuang",
"confidence": null,
"placeid": 2028321,
"type": "Creation Place"
}
],
"publications": [
{
"publicationplace": null,
"volumetitle": null,
"citation": "Sanchita Balachandran, \"Research into the Collecting and Conservation History of Chinese Wall Paintings from Dunhuang in the Harvard University Art Museums\" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 2004), Unpublished",
"publicationyear": 2004,
"citationremarks": null,
"pagenumbers": "passim",
"format": "Dissertation/Thesis",
"publicationid": 19328,
"title": "Research into the Collecting and Conservation History of Chinese Wall Paintings from Dunhuang in the Harvard University Art Museums",
"volumenumber": null,
"publicationdate": "2004"
},
{
"publicationplace": null,
"volumetitle": "International Journal of Cultural Property",
"citation": "Sanchita Balachandran, Object Lessons: The Politics of Preservation and Museum Building in Western China in the Early Twentieth Century, <em>International Journal of Cultural Property</em> (2007), Vol. 14, No. 1, 1-32",
"publicationyear": 2007,
"citationremarks": null,
"pagenumbers": null,
"format": "Article/Essay",
"publicationid": 26946,
"title": "Object Lessons: The Politics of Preservation and Museum Building in Western China in the Early Twentieth Century",
"volumenumber": "Vol. 14, No. 1, 1-32",
"publicationdate": "2007"
}
],
"terms": {
"century": [
{
"name": "7th century",
"id": 37525698
}
],
"culture": [
{
"name": "Chinese",
"id": 37527174
}
],
"medium": [
{
"name": "Pigment",
"id": 2029080
}
],
"place": [
{
"name": "East Asia",
"id": 2028303
},
{
"name": "China",
"id": 2028317
},
{
"name": "Gansu province",
"id": 2028320
},
{
"name": "Dunhuang",
"id": 2028321
}
],
"support": [
{
"name": "plaster",
"id": 2029071
}
],
"topic": [
{
"name": "Google Art Project",
"id": 2040174
},
{
"name": "Artstor Digital Library",
"id": 2040173
}
]
},
"titles": [
{
"titletype": "Title",
"titleid": 495736,
"displayorder": 1,
"title": "Kneeling Attendant Holding a Triple Jewel (from the north wall of Mogao Cave 329, Dunhuang, Gansu province)"
}
],
"title": "Kneeling Attendant Holding a Triple Jewel (from the north wall of Mogao Cave 329, Dunhuang, Gansu province)",
"worktypes": [
{
"worktypeid": "235",
"worktype": "mural painting"
}
],
"seeAlso": [
{
"id": "https://iiif.harvardartmuseums.org/manifests/object/209167",
"type": "IIIF Manifest",
"format": "application/json",
"profile": "http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2/context.json"
}
]
}