In Chinese Buddhist art, the sixth century was an era of great
artistic transformation and theological debate. During that dynamic
period, religion enjoyed both imperial patronage and abundant popular
support. Promise of Paradise,
an exhibition of the permanent collection in the Freer Gallery of Art,
brings together finely carved stone figures, architectural reliefs, and
gilt bronzes from that pivotal period. Together the works illustrate how
beliefs, artistic techniques, and religious expression both rapidly
evolved and provided a foundation for later innovations.

One sculpture deserving particular attention is a late sixth-century
image of the Buddha. A complex decoration of low-relief narrative scenes
covers its surface. To better elucidate the significance of these
carvings, Keith Wilson, curator of ancient Chinese art at the Freer and
Sackler Galleries, turned to digital resources for assistance in closely
examining this imposing sculpture.

Scholars have identified the headless figure as Vairochana, the
Cosmic Buddha (Pilushena in Chinese). The iconography of the narrative
scenes that cover its form-fitting robe represents the life of the
Historical Buddha as well as the “Realms of Existence,” a symbolic map
of the Buddhist world. In Buddhist texts, Vairochana is described as the
generative force behind all phenomena in the universe. He is also a
central figure in the Chinese schools of Tiantai and Huayan. The
narrative scenes are spiritual emanations rising from the Buddha himself
and illustrate fundamental Buddhist teachings. These scenes originally
would have been painted, as suggested by the slight traces of pigment
that remain.

Following the success of the 2011 exhibition Echoes of the Past,
Wilson recognized the potential of digital imaging techniques. That
earlier exhibition utilized 3D-imaging technology to explore an
important group of late sixth-century devotional sites: the Buddhist
cave temples of Xiangtangshan in northern China. In the early twentieth
century sculptures had been removed from the caves. Technology made it
possible to reconstruct one of the caves by layering high-resolution
color photographs and 3D laser scans of the missing sculptures onto
digitized scans of the interior as it now looks. Visitors could thus
experience a Buddhist cave in its original arrangement, an impossible
experience today.

To create an interactive, web-based resource about the Cosmic Buddha, Wilson partnered with the Smithsonian Institution’s Digitization Program Office
(DPO). That office is charged with creating images of the Smithsonian’s
collections through both photography and 3D modeling. As part of a
joint initiative between DPO and the Freer and Sackler Galleries,
digitization experts Adam Metallo, Vince Rossi, and Jon Blundell scanned
the Cosmic Buddha over a two-week period in the fall of 2011.

Those scans were then digitally stitched together to create a 3D
model, the basis for an interactive web module. Generously supported by
the 2D and 3D software developer Autodesk, the web interface software
allows viewers to rotate the sculpture, adjust lighting, and zoom in to
see details of the sculpture’s surface. The module features guided tours written
by Wilson and geologist Janet Douglas, a former Freer|Sackler
conservation scientist. For example, Douglas presents overviews of the
stone-working technique that was used to carve the sculpture, a
scientific profile of the stone itself, and the sculpture’s conservation
history. Wilson annotates the sculpture to explain the complex
iconography that is derived from religious texts and theological
discussions. More tours will be added as research progresses, thus
allowing the public to follow developments and new findings.

Through the use of this digital model, Wilson and other researchers
can study the sculpture and its exceptional details in a new way.
Scholars have long relied on rubbings to read such low-relief carvings,
using black ink on white paper to make the patterns and scenes more
legible. Today’s 3D modeling provides a far clearer view of the
sculpture’s surface. Wilson can now detect previously unreadable
details, and he is undertaking a comprehensive survey of the complex
scenes depicted over the sculpture’s surface. This newfound ability has
led him to conclude that the Freer’s Cosmic Buddha may well have been
designed to serve as a teaching sculpture, probably in a monastery,
where a narrator provided commentary and instruction on the teachings of
Buddhism.

The scans’ clarity makes it easier than ever to map the surface and
more clearly identify the borders of scenes and the figures they
contain. Spatial depth in the narrative units is created through
diagonals, vanishing points, and layered landscapes. By looking at 3D
prints, scholars can now study these scenes for their artistic merit in a
manner similar to paintings. The prints might help elucidate early
Chinese narrative illustration and provide vital insight into the visual
culture of sixth-century China.

Thanks to the 3D model, the Cosmic Buddha can now be examined
collaboratively in ways as never before, with “copies” of the sculpture
being shared with colleagues in China and elsewhere around the world. In
October 2016, the Freer and Sackler Galleries plan to hold a conference
on the Cosmic Buddha, convening the field around a seminal period of
Chinese Buddhist art and providing a forum for considering a single
sculpture and the milieu in which it was created.

Creating and studying digital images of the Cosmic Buddha demonstrate
how technology can aid art historians, Buddhist scholars, and other
researchers and interested people around the world by providing them
with greater access to a masterpiece of Buddhist sculpture.

Learn more about the Cosmic Buddha

Angela Howard. Imagery of the Cosmological Buddha. Leiden: Brill, 1986.
Denise Leidy. The Art of Buddhism: An Introduction to Its History and Meaning. Boston: Shambhala, 2008.

Related online features

Vairochna, the Cosmic Buddha
Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Caves of Xiangtangshan
The Return of the Buddha
Body of Devotion: The Cosmic Buddha in 3D