Repatriation of the "Eight Men Ferrying a Statue of the Buddha"

Repatraition of the Eight Men Ferrying a Statue of the Buddha
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Introduction
The 4th and 5th centuries B.C. were indeed a time of great intellectual ferment across the world. That was a time when great minds like Plato and Socrates, Confucius and Laozi ruled the world. It was the period of the Buddha in Asia, after whose death a Buddhism arose that eventually expanded far beyond its borders. The prince who would have been the Buddha, Siddhartha, was conceived into the ruling household of Kapilavastu, a tiny country in the Himalayan foothills. His birth was supernatural, and his birth was extraordinary, and sages foretold that he'd become a worldwide conqueror, either of the material realm or men's hearts. It's the latest conquest that resulted. Siddhartha, who gave up the delights of the palace to discover the ultimate meaning of life, initially chose the road of rigorous asceticism, only to reject it after 6 years as a pointless exercise. He then reclined in yogic contemplation beneath a bodhi tree till enlightenment came to him. He was dubbed the Buddha, or "Enlightened One," from then on. Eight men ferrying a statue of the Buddha is an art that came from the Mogao cave 323 in the Gansu Province. It is currently in the Harvard Art Museums. The art will be the center of discussion on this research regarding how it was acquired, its access, the beneficiaries, and its repatriation. The paper discusses about the repatriation process of the Buddha.
A Description of the Artwork
Stylistic Features
To understand the stylistic features of Chinese Artwork, it is critical to be familiar with the fact that fine art was an important part of Chinese culture. From the art in the discussion, it is clear that the art was painted with brushes which was the common Chinese painting culture. Nevertheless, there are also traces of ash, pigment, and ink in the painting. The painting also seems to have been done from a cave wall background, and the use of caves is associated with many of the ancient Chinese paintings.


Figure 1: Eight Men Ferrying a Statue of the Buddha
Regarding its identification, Eight men ferrying a statue of the Buddha is dated to have been done probably in the 7th Century. It was done on a section of a wall painting probably polychromy, on unfired clay. The dimensions of the painting are irregular and not symmetrical, a height of 50.8 centimeters by the width of 94 centimeters (20 by 37 inches). When framed, the dimensions are a height of 73.7 centimeters, a width of 114.3, and a depth of 3.5 centimeters (29 x 45 x 1 3/8 inches). The art uses black, grey, and brown colors. The background is mostly a mixture of grey and white, resulting from being painted on a caved wall.
The varying dimensions are a clear indication that the mural was done in an unproportionate cave. Caves have walls with variable dimensions, and the surface of walls is not always flat, making the mural very difficult to paint. The greyish color is an s result of it being painted on a cave wall, most of that color.
Technical Features
To understand the technical features of art, Eight men ferrying a statue of the Buddha, the analysis, the surface of the painting should be analyzed. The C...