Dear visitors,
please note that our National Research Network "The Cultural History of the Western Himalaya from the 8th Century (S98)" - generously sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund - has ended on June 30th 2013. For that reason this website will no longer be updated on a regular basis.
For information on our ongoing research, events and activities please refer to the website of our Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Documentation of Inner and South Asian Cultural History (CIRDIS).
Art History (S 9802)
| Project Leader: | Univ.-Prof. Dr. Deborah Klimburg-Salter |
| Members: | Mag.a E. Allinger; Dr. E. Forte; Mag.a L. Lojda; Mag.a P. Müller; DI U. Niebuhr, BA; Mag.a S. Novotny; M. Strinu; Mag.a U. Wallenböck; Mag.a Dr. V. Widorn; Mag.a V. Ziegler |
A cultural richness rediscovered
At the time that Viennese art historians began their study in FWF collaborative projects in 1989 (directed by E. Steinkellner), the monuments of the Western Himalaya did not even appear in the standard art historical works. Today, as a result of the publications of the very few early pioneers such as G. Tucci, D. Snellgrove and Skorupski, and the research by the Viennese team, the monuments of the Indian Himalaya appear on every map dealing with Buddhist art in India or Tibet. Initial efforts were directed to the exploration, documentation, description, and analysis of Buddhist monastic art, with an emphasis on the art attributed to the Second Diffusion of Buddhism in the Western Himalaya 10th - 12th centuries. The results have encouraged a new and more ambitious approach which intends to bring together all the available data from a broader geographical and chronological context.
Art History
Art History (AH) and archaeology provide the largest body of primary evidence for the study of the 8th-14th century and the region under examination. Thus AH, the largest sub-project, continues as in the earlier Austrian Science Foundation FSP to be the core project which provides information to and shares interests with each of the other projects.
The goal of AH is to support the establishment of a centre of excellence for the study of the art history of Inner and South Asia in collaboration with the Research Platform of the University of Vienna (CIRDIS). The organization of art historical research topics follows the Tibetan tradition which states that the early phases of Tibetan art were greatly influenced by the artistic traditions of Greater Kashmir, Northeast India, China and Central Asia (Khotan). The Greater Kashmir is the cultural hub of this extended region – and the diffusion of Chinese and Central Asian influence, as yet an underestimated and only recently explored element, a recurrent leitmotif. The extraordinarily rich culture that evolved in these regions in the pre-Islamic period will be examined from different standpoints yielded by the specific knowledge of the members of the Project. Obviously the primary interest of AH is represented by any material evidence of artistic production that can be correlated to the research subject, such as sculpture, painting, architecture; nonetheless, the cultural processes at work from the 8th century cannot be effectively understood without a transdisciplinary method. The analysis of the structure and change in the visual forms and their various functions finds therefore a necessary complement in the parallel researches agendas in the other sub-projects. This multidisciplinary approach is particularly beneficial to young scholars, whose training in Asian art history (elsewhere not possible in Austria) is one of the foremost aims of the project.
Closely related to the activities of the AH is the archive of visual documentation (WHAV) which has been created during many years of field researches and is constantly implemented.