Art in Asia, home to some of the world’s oldest cultures can be traced back to civilizations that thrived some 4000 years ago.
Early works of Asian art were tied to religion. Bronze vessels were used in religious ceremonies during China’s Zhang dynasty. In Japan, clay figures were placed at burial sites. Pillars inscribed with Buddhist beliefs and sculptures of the Buddha, began to proliferate throughout the Indian subcontinent during the third century BC.
Buddhist religion and art spread from India to China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. Each culture adapted the religion to fit its own character and as a consequence, Buddhist art is as varied and complex as the civilizations that produced it.
Developed in China in about 2640 BC, the technique of silk production remained the well-kept secret of the Chinese for about 3000 years. Outside China, the powerful lure of silk fostered much human ingenuity and the secrets of making silk were eventually smuggled into Japan and India.
Landscapes are conventional themes of Chinese art, rendered with great delicacy and economy of brush stroke, Chinese paintings convey a society and accord with nature. The life of common people with the subject matter of an artistic style developed in Japan called Ukiyoye, Japanese wood cuts are probably the finest expression of this movement, which—
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