Jar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Four pearl roundels, each containing the same image of a frontal man's head with a Central Asian face, dominate this jar. Frontal heads surrounded by pearl beading occur in several kinds of early Central Asian art; for example, they appear frequently on unglazed Khotanese earthenwares. Elements of the Buddhist decorative grammar appear here as well: the elongated earlobes are characteristic of images of the Buddha, and the highly stylized palmettes are reminiscent of carvings in some Buddhist cave temples. The tasseled streamers issuing from an ornamental disk are similar to those embellishing late Six Dynasties (220–589) stone figures of bodhisattvas; they also occur in Khotanese earthenwares.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art