The decoration of this box is luxurious, reflecting the fact that late Joseon society enjoyed prosperity and adhered less rigidly to the Confucian virtue of austerity. The top of the box is decorated with a grapevine motif, which was a popular subject for painting as well as for decorative arts and other crafts during the Joseon dynasty. This motif is carried over to the front panel with hanging leaves and clusters of grapes, while the other panels are decorated with bamboo. The grapevine design on the cover is particularly animated. The inclusion of wasps and squirrels gives this box a sense of whimsy characteristic of eighteenth-century Korean art.

A certain evil demon could not be killed by man or beast, indoors or out, during the day or night. To defeat the demon, Vishnu took the form of a half man-half lion, hid in the pillar of a doorway, and attacked at dusk. Here Vishnu, in his man-lion form, disembowels the demon and treads on him in triumph. This act represents the role and power of the Hindu gods in restoring order and balance in a world of chaos.

Brandishing their weapons, baring their fangs, and glaring menacingly, these guardians seem to take their job seriously. It is hard, however, not to see them as mock-ferocious. These figures would have flanked the entranceway of a Hindu temple in the kingdom of Majapahit (approx. 1300-1500) centered in East Java. After the fall of Majapahit, much of the rest of Indonesia embraced Islam, and Hindu culture today survives primarily on the island of Bali.

An excavation between 1910 and 1915 in the Mojokerto region of eastern Java brought these figures to light. A former Asian Art Museum curator, Kristina Youso, continues the story: “They were subsequently presented as a gift to the then Dutch governor-general of East Java, Mr. Van Aalst, by the local Javanese regent. In 1918, when van Aalst retired, he received permission to export the figures. Van Aalst eventually settled, with his collection, in California. Over the past several decades, the door guardians changed hands and were placed on view in various museums before being acquired by the Asian.”

This page, from an as-yet-unidentified Hindu manuscript, depicts a king seated in conversation with a holy man. The latter is identifiable as a Shiva worshiper by his tiger-skin mat, his leopard-skin garment, his necklace of sacred beads, and the horizontal marks on his forehead. In his left hand he holds a page from a manuscript, the rest of which is probably enclosed within the bundle covered with blue cloth at his side. Descriptions of meetings between royal persons and holy men, which are found throughout Indian religious and literary texts, were popular subjects for paintings. These texts frequently included stories of princes or kings approaching learned holy men for spiritual advice, which was often imparted in the form of a series of instructive tales. That kings sought assistance in various matters from famous holy men was an indication of the powers—equal to or greater than those of royals—attached to religious figures in India.

The unusual shape of this rare helmet was dictated by the needs of the Sikh warrior who wore it into battle with his uncut hair rolled into a topknot beneath it. Uncut hair was among the five emblems of solidarity adopted in the 1600s by Sikhs suffering from religious persecution. Traditionally associated with South Asian ascetics, uncut hair came to represent Sikh religious devotion. The steel and brass links of the helmet’s chain mail neckguard are arranged in a diamond pattern that is said to reflect the churning waters at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna, India’s greatest rivers.

In both India and Southeast Asia a favorite character from the Indian epic the Ramayana is the monkey warrior Hanuman, the faithful companion of the hero Rama. After Rama’s wife, Sita, is kidnapped by the demon Ravana, Hanuman is instrumental in rescuing her from captivity in Lanka, Ravana’s island kingdom. As the son of the wind god, Hanuman is capable of flying and thus is able to traverse the ocean to Lanka. Indonesian renditions of the journey differ from Indian versions.

This drawing illustrates some of the obstacles faced by Hanuman in a Balinese retelling of the story. First Hanuman encounters the demon Wilkataksini, who guards the beach on Lanka. Hanuman is sucked into the demon’s stomach but is able to slay the demon from the inside. Then Hanuman encounters a second demon, Tatkini, who also tries to swallow him, but the monkey is able to expand his body and choke his attacker. This drawing appears to depict an amalgamation of the two episodes, showing Hanuman twice but with only one demon. Other features of the illustration may have been inspired by versions of the epic as performed in Balinese shadow puppet (wayang kulit) theater or drawn from the artist’s imagination.

The theme of scholars’ accoutrements (chaekgeori) became popular at court and with members of the gentry at the end of the Joseon dynasty. King Jeongjo (reigned 1776– 1800), an erudite ruler who was a lover of books, is known to have had some influence in the propagation of this theme. Chaekgeori paintings always include a stack of books, brushes, ink sticks, inkstones, scrolls, and antiquities, items that scholars had—or wished to have—around them in their studies.

Chaekgeori painters were quite innovative in exploiting a variety of techniques for depicting perspective. For this trompe l’oeil screen of bookshelves, Yi Eungnok employed elements of both Western and Eastern perspective: in representing the book stacks, for instance, he combined receding surfaces of an interior space in the Western style with such Eastern elements as multiple vanishing points and isometric perspective. From a family of court painters, Yi was himself a court painter-in-waiting. The seal on the top shelf of the fourth panel from the right bears Yi’s name.

Gopal Pal Saha’s favored topics are village scenes, including the encroachment of amenities of contemporary life and visitors from the outside world. In this image he has depicted men and women assembled together, wearing traditional Indian dress. Various objects held in the figures’ hands reveal that both the women and men are smoking and drinking, indicating that they are not traditional Indian villagers. In fact, as the title of the painting reveals, the subjects here are “hippies” from Japan. A contemporary Indian stereotype considers the primary interests of foreigners, particularly those who look like hippies, to be smoking, drinking, and other activities traditionally viewed as immoral.

Dominating the center of this painting is a lotus plant motif known as a kohbar. The motif and the various images that surround it are still painted, for the occasion of weddings, on the walls of homes in the Mithila region. Rooms in both the bride’s and bridegroom’s home are transformed by such paintings into spaces where ceremonial rites are performed. The kohbar room in the bridal home is the more elaborate as it serves primarily as the nuptial chamber, where the marriage is consummated. For this reason, its walls are painted with images of deities and sacred symbols denoting prosperity and fertility. The typical lotus plant motif, as seen here, consists of a central lotus against an upright stalk with shoots, flowers, and leaves issuing from it. The plant is considered a symbol of the bride as indicated by the female face painted at the top of the stalk. The groom is symbolized by a bamboo plant that is depicted abstractly as a small squarish motif of intersecting lines in the upper right of the painting. The two birds with overlapping heads at the top of the lotus plant indicate marital union, while other birds as well as fish, leaves, and flowers scattered throughout the work denote life and fertility. Hindu deities such as the four-headed god Brahma (whose fourth head is understood to be in back) and the flute-playing god Krishna are depicted at lower right. The god Shiva is also shown, together with his wife Parvati and his elephant-headed son Ganesha. In the two lower corners of the painting the bride and groom are shown carried in palanquins, while in the upper left some of the marriage rituals are depicted. In the four corners are images of a protective goddess, shown in profile with a basket upon her head.

It is likely that this painting, executed by the court artist Ding Guanpeng, served as the model for a woven scroll in the Asain Art Museum collection, for another in the Potala Palace in Tibet, and perhaps for a series of others. All were made at the Imperial Workshops during the reign of the Qianlong emperor as gifts to the religious leaders of Tibet. The woven piece is dated 1744, and this painting may have been created in the same year or perhaps slightly earlier.