Asian Art October 18, 2008

The Walters Art Museum displays more than 1,000 works of Asian art, including works from China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia. Highlights of the Asian art collection assembled by William and Henry Walters include Japanese arms and armor, Chinese and Japanese porcelains, lacquers and metalwork. Among the museum's outstanding works of Asian art is a late 12th or early 13th century Cambodian bronze of the eight-armed Avalokiteshvara, a T'ang Dynasty earthenware camel given as a tomb offering to accompany the soul of the deceased, and an intricately painted Ming Dynasty wine jar most likely made for the wedding of a prominent 16th century couple. The museum owns the oldest surviving Chinese wood-and-lacquer image of the Buddha (late 6th century AD), which is exhibited in a gallery dedicated solely to this work.