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The Harvard Buddha Hand

Presented by Harvard Art Museum at Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum

October 7, 2009

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Lecture Series, In-Sight: Looking Deeper and Differently

Lecture with Yukio Lippit, Harris K. Weston Associate Professor of the Humanities, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University

Through a remarkable display of art-historical acumen, this left hand in the Harvard Art Museum’s collection was recently determined to belong to a large Japanese Buddhist icon by the 13th-century master sculptor Kaikei. His figure of the Buddha was a key component in one of the most dramatic chapters in Japan’s religious and cultural history, the efforts of the monk Chogen (1121–1206) to rebuild Todaiji monastery — the world’s largest freestanding wooden building — and its Great Buddha in Nara. The hand not only returns us to this historical moment, but also provides new insights into the wholesale changes taking place in Japanese sculpture, architecture, and religious culture of the period.

Join us for a new series of lectures that will explore individual objects from the Harvard Art Museum collection and beyond. Each lecture will look deeply at a single work of art, inviting interpretations that probe beneath the surface. Approaching each work from multiple perspectives, we will examine the techniques, contexts, and stories that helped shape these exceptional works, and their significance to the Art Museum.

Series tickets $90 (members $60; complimentary series admission for members at Sustaining level and above). Individual lectures $18 (members $12). Space is limited and registration is strongly encouraged; please call 617-495-0534 or email artmuseum_membership@harvard.edu for more information.

Complimentary parking at Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street. Members will receive invitations in the mail.