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Legacy of Ceylon: Art and Photography of Sri Lanka
Just off the southernmost coast of India, located east across the Gulf of Mannar, sits a small island nation with a complex, storied past.
Once a stop along the ancient Silk Road, a vast system of trade routes that connected Europe with the Middle East and Asia, this nation, known for more than 100 years as Ceylon and now known as Sri Lanka, boasts a multidimensional history that spans more than 3,000 years, with a culture that was influenced by nearly every major human civilization and dominant world power, including the Persian Empire, Ancient Greece, Rome, and the European world, all of whom, at one time or another, jockeyed for power in the maritime age. Legacy of Ceylon: Art and Photography of Sri Lanka explores the art history of this vibrant island nation that achieved its independence in 1948. Featuring more than 50 objects spanning 1,000 years, the exhibition provides an unprecedented glimpse into a time now lost and is a significant opportunity to experience some of the rarest examples of Sri Lankan art in the United States, many of which have never been on view publicly. The Museum’s dynamic collection of Sri Lankan art, which represents a portion of the objects in the exhibition, is the result of generous donations of objects over the past 20 years by Arizona collectors Drs. Coleene and Barry Fernando, the latter of whom was born in Sri Lanka and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1957. Legacy of Ceylon is the first exhibition organized by Phoenix Art Museum to focus on works from this renowned Sri Lankan art collection since The Guardian of the Flame: Art of Sri Lanka, organized by the Museum in 2003. With a wide range of objects, of both personal and devotional significance, the exhibition on view in the Art of Asia galleries offers a view into everyday life on the predominantly Buddhist island nation when it was known as Ceylon. Featured works date to as early as the sixth century, while the
THROUGH NOVEMBER 6, 2022 ART OF ASIA GALLERIES
MEMORIES FROM THE
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majority span the 16th and 19th centuries, the height of the nation’s colonization in which the island was subjugated by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British, until 1948. When experienced together alongside newer works, these objects provide insight into precolonial, colonial, and post-colonial life, as each rare gem was integral to the everyday life of those who used or cherished them. This breadth of work also invites viewers to discern the dramatic stylistic and technical transformations of Sri Lankan Buddhist art over an extended period of time.
IT SEEMS TO ME THAT DR. QUINTUS FERNANDO CAPTURED WHAT HE LOVED ABOUT HIS HOMELAND BEFORE HE LEFT. HE WAS A MAN OF MANY TALENTS—A SCIENTIST, STAMP COLLECTOR, AND NOW WE KNOW HIM TO HAVE BEEN A VISIONARY PHOTOGRAPHER.
/// JANET BAKER, PHD, CURATOR OF ASIAN ART ///
“Sri Lanka has a diverse history,” said Janet Baker, PhD, the Museum’s curator of Asian art, who curated the exhibition. “As part of spice and sea trade routes between Asia and Europe, and because of this colonial history, Sri Lanka has a very multifaceted cultural influence, including Buddhism and Hinduism from India, and then the influence of Europeans.” In addition to featuring works that exhibit the influence of Buddhism and European artistic traditions, Legacy of Ceylon also provides insights into the development of bronzecasting techniques of the period. “Through works in this exhibition, drawn from both the Museum’s collection and loans from the Fernando family’s private collection, it is possible to trace how Buddhist bronze-casting techniques and aesthetics evolved over 1,000 years,” said Baker. “When Buddhism first came to Sri Lanka in the third century, artisans and artists made small, technically refined sculptures. Over time, that technique evolved and reached its apex in the 17th and 18th centuries. Visitors will be able to see that evolution through works spanning a millennia.”
WHAT’S IN A NAME? TRACING THE JOURNEY FROM CEYLON TO SRI LANKA
As part of its examination of the influence of European aesthetics on the art of Sri Lanka, Legacy of Ceylon: Art and Photography of Sri Lanka utilizes the name “Ceylon” in its title as a reference to the legacy of colonialism. “Ceylon” was an Anglicization of the name the Portuguese gave the island, “Ceilão,” in 1505. However, the history of changing names in Sri Lanka predates this period of European colonization. Throughout antiquity, the island, sometimes called the “pearl of the Indian Ocean,” came to be known by a wide variety of monikers. In the sixth century BCE, Prince Vijaya, considered to be the first Sinhalese ruler of the island who ruled from 543-505 BCE, named it “Tambapanni,” a reference to the red-colored soil. In the Hindu Sanskrit epic Ramayana, the island was called simply “Lanka,” which means “island,” similar to the way places like New York City or San Francisco are sometimes termed, simply, “the City.” The Romans called the island “Sielen,” which likely later influenced the Portuguese and British terms. One of the most remarkable names was given to Sri Lanka by Arab traders, who called the island “Sarandib,” a word that lives on today in the English language as “serendipity.” Beginning in 1972, the island nation formally adopted the name “Sri Lanka,” a term that means “resplendent island.” Today, it is known as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, and beginning in 2011, the government embarked on a campaign to root out all references to the British name “Ceylon” from every aspect of national and public life, a symbolic message to the world of the depth of Sri Lanka’s independence from its past subjugation by European nations.
