On Recent Attributions to Aniko by David Weldon
On recent attributions to Aniko by David Weldon. October 21, 2010
"Publications of late have seen a trend in the attribution of sculpture and painting to Aniko (1245-1306), the renowned Nepalese artist and architect. While Aniko’s career is well documented, his oeuvre has up to now been known only from descriptions in the annals. He was one of a group of artists summoned to Tibet from Nepal in 1260 by the Sakya hierarch Phags-pa (1235-1280) to construct a memorial stupa to Sakya Pandita (1182-1251). The Mongol emperor Khubilai Khan (1215-1294) sponsored the building. Aniko was then brought to the Chinese court where he impressed the emperor and rose to prominent posts in the Yuan (1279-1368) court. Amongst many honours he was appointed ‘Supervisor-in-chief of All Classes of Artisans’, and later ‘Minister of Education’ in charge of the ‘Imperial Manufactories Commission’ responsible for the court’s supply of precious materials such as gold, pearls and rhinoceros horn. The court annals describe numerous temples and stupas that Aniko constructed, bronzes that he cast and textiles that were woven to his design. Two stupas remain, one in Beijing and one on Wutai Mountain. The temples have not survived. But does anything remain of the portable works? The prolific output that we are told about would suggest there might be, and this leads to the desire among scholars to identify his work. While these recent attributions could be important steps forward in our understanding of thirteenth century Tibeto-Chinese metal sculpture and portable painting, how can we be sure of the attributions when there is a paucity of his works with which to compare them and no inscriptional evidence relating to the attributed works?" (Read the full article on the Asian Art website. See images of the Aniko Stupa in Beijing on the HAR website).