Guimet Museum - kuchewar

The Guimet Museum, full name in French: Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet (MNAAG), abbreviated to Musée Guimet, is an art museum located at 6, place d’Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. Literally translated into English, its full name is the National Museum of Asian Arts-Guimet, or Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts.

The museum has one of the largest collections of Asian art outside of Asia.

History

Panoramic view of the library in the Guimet Museum

Founded by Émile Étienne Guimet, an industrialist, the museum first opened at Lyon in 1879 but was later transferred to Paris, opening in the place d’Iéna in 1889. Devoted to travel, Guimet was in 1876 commissioned by the minister of public instruction to study the religions of the Far East, and the museum contains many of the fruits of this expedition, including a fine collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain and many objects relating not merely to the religions of the East but also to those of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. One of its wings, the Panthéon Bouddhique, displays religious artworks.

Some of the museum’s artifacts were collected from Southeast Asia by French authorities during the colonial period.

From December 2006 to April 2007, the museum harboured collections of the Kabul Museum, with archaeological pieces from the Greco-Bactrian city of Ai-Khanoum, and the Indo-Scythian treasure of Tillia Tepe.

Works of art of the museum

Greco-Buddhist art

Gandhara Buddha, 1st–2nd century CE
Hellenistic decorative scrolls from Hadda, northern Afghanistan
Standing Buddha, ancient region of Gandhara, northern Afghanistan, 1st century
Stone palette of a Nereidsea-goddess riding a Ketos sea-monster, Sirkap, 2nd century BCE
Wine-drinking and music, Hadda, 1st–2nd century CE
A Corinthian capitol with a Buddha at its center, 2nd century, Surk Kotal, Afghanistan
The Greek god Atlas, supporting a Buddhist monument, Hadda
The BodhisattvaMaitreya, 2nd century, Gandhara
Scene of the life of the Buddha. 2nd–3rd century. Gandhara
Portraits from the site of Hadda, 3rd century
Statuette excavated from the Dharmarajika Stupasite at Sirkap, Pakistan

Serindian art

Heroic gesture of the Bodhisattva”, 6th–7th century terracotta, Tumshuq (Xinjiang)
Head of a Bodhisattva, 6th–7th century terracotta, Tumshuq (Xinjiang)

Chinese art

Han Dynasty Horse (1st–2nd century)
Buddha triad, Eastern Wei (534–550), China
Tang dynasty Foreign Merchant
Northern Qi depiction of Sogdians
One of the Group of glazed pottery luohans from Yixian, c. 1000
A sitting celadon lion, dated 11th to 12th century, Song dynasty
A porcelain vase with design of men fighting on horseback, from the Jiajing reign period(1521–1567), Ming dynasty
A round sancai dish from the Tang dynasty, 8th to 9th century
Painting Bodhisattva Who Leads the Wayfrom Mo-kao caves, 900–950 A.D.

Indian art

An aniconic representation of Mara’s assault on the Buddha, 2nd century, Amaravati, Guntur, India
The BodhisattvaMaitreya, 2nd century, Mathura
A Buddha, 2nd century, Mathura
Buddha of the Guptaperiod, 5th century, Mathura
Head of a Buddha, Gupta period, 6th century
Rishabhanatha, sandstone, Madhya Pradesh, Chandelaperiod, 10th–11th century
Buddha and Bodhisattvas, 11th century, Pala Empire
Vishnu, Madhya Pradesh, 11th–12th century
Shiva from Tamil Nadu, Chola period, 11th century
Rishabhanatha, 11th–12th century, Orissa