Yes, I have always found these complex periods/locations of
cross-fertilization utterly fascinating. They are in some ways the best of
what civilization can bring. The internet itself is, of course, one such
locus.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pippin Michelli [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 1999 1:42 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: gestures
>
> I don't know the origin of the gesture, but to Medievalist art historians,
> it is recognized as Latin in opposition to the Greek equivalent, which is
> the index and little fingers up. It is known as the "adlocutio" gesture,
> and I personally wonder if it was used somewhere like in the Roman Senate.
>
> With regard to the Buddhist connection - that's really not my field, but
> this is what Honour and Fleming have to say (p 201):
>
> "Artistically, though not geographically, Gandhara was some way to the
> west
> of India. This central Asian frontier region had been opened up to Greek
> influence in the Hellenistic perid, when it formed part of the kingdom of
> Bactria, ruled over by a succession of Greeks ... By the time it had
> become
> part of the Kushan empire, it was separated from the Mediterranean world
> by
> the Parthians, but this did not interrupt the flow of works of art, and
> almost certainly, of artists as well from Rome's eastern provinces. The
> result was an art owing as much or more to Rome as to India, an
> interbreeding of two deeply antipathetic ideals. Yet it was from this
> strange artistic cross-fertilization that the first great Buddha images
> were
> to come ...
>
> Any help?
>
> Pippin Michelli, Ph.D
> Assistant Professor of Art History, St Olaf College
> http://www.stolaf.edu/people/michelli/index4.html
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rosenstiel, Karen <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tuesday, September 14, 1999 3:15 PM
> Subject: RE: gestures
>
>
> >Interestingly, it is also a gesture used in Buddhist art. Would there be
> >some cross-currents here?
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Patricia McGurk [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> >> Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 1999 7:22 AM
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: gestures
> >>
> >> Dear Learned Scholars,
> >> Can anyone enlighten me concerning the origin and full meaning of the
> hand
> >>
> >> gesture of two fingers of the right hand extended with the thumb
> pointing
>
> >> upwards? One sees it in iconography of Christ, prelates etc. It is
> >> apparently associated with consecration, blessing, ecclesiastical
> >> authority
> >> and the like.
> >> Thank you
> >>
> >>
> >
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