Description
The epigraph to this book by Titus Burckhardt (1908-1984), the late Swiss art historian and philosopher of religion, expresses for us the key importance of understanding the authentic traditional art forms of each of the world’s major cultures. Burckhardt was one of the twentieth century’s foremost experts on the sacred forms of the traditional civilizations that surround each of the world’s great religions. Three of his illustrated works focus on Christian art and culture1 while another three illustrated works center on Islamic art and culture.2 These books demonstrate Burckhardt’s unique ability to communicate the spiritual essence of the traditional Christian and Islamic worlds as if we had actually lived during those times. But Burckhardt was also an acknowledged expert on the sacred art of the Orient, particularly in its Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist forms. As Martin Lings has said of Sacred Art in East and West, Burckhardt’s peerless work on the subject: “… again and again one has the impression that the author has ‘said the last word’ on this or that particular aspect. … It is seldom that one has the privilege of reading a work by an author who has such mastery of his subject.” Foundations of Oriental Art & Symbolism is an edited collection of Burckhardt’s most important articles on Oriental art and symbolism, with page after page of illustrations from the traditional Oriental civilizations. Th ese illustrations illuminate Burckhardt’s insightful descriptions and explanations, providing the reader with a small taste of the beauty that permeated the traditional Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist worlds—a beauty that has in large part been overwhelmed and swallowed by our modern era. Part I, “Oriental Art”, begins with Burckhardt’s introduction to traditional Oriental art. In the following three chapters he then explores the artistic foundations of each of the three great Oriental religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, focusing particularly on the Hindu temple, the Buddha image, and Chinese landscape painting.
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