Sylvan Barnet and William Burto

In 2004, Sylvan Barnet and William Burto proposed a promised gift of nineteen works from their distinguished collection of Japanese Buddhist art to the Freer Gallery of Art. At the time, many of their works were on view in the Sackler Gallery as part of the exhibition Faith and Form: Selected Painting and Calligraphy from Japanese Religious Traditions (March 20–July 18, 2004).The collectors’ promise took the form of a bequest, which was recently fulfilled as the Freer gratefully received these important objects.

The works that Barnet and Burto donated to the Freer include most of their fine collection of Buddhist illuminated sutra fragments and related objects. These artworks are beautiful expressions of faith and provide a remarkable complement to the extensive Buddhist holdings already in the Freer’s Japanese collection. Important imperially commissioned examples from the eighth century reveal a critical moment, when Japan’s adoption of Buddhism was a massive union of faith and government. The style of calligraphy shows the first tenuous steps toward the absorption of formal Chinese models.

Another group of sutra fragments, dating from the eleventh through thirteenth century, shows heightened decorative strains, elegant experimentation, and a beauty more easily recognizable as Japanese. Many of these later works were products of a pious practice fervently observed in this period, as Buddhist teaching predicted a time of chaos, decline of religious observation, and apocalypse. A custom of burying sutras in exquisitely crafted metal cylinders preserved the word of law for the coming of the Maitreya Buddha in an age of revival. In addition to texts, Barnet and Burto’s gift includes examples of the paraphernalia of preservation.

Retired professors of English literature at Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, respectively, Barnet and Burto began collecting Japanese art in the 1960s. They largely focused on following the threads of Buddhist and Shinto visual expression over many centuries. Works ranging from seventh-century sculpture to the haunting photography of Hiroshi Sugimoto were some of the many surprises for visitors to their comfortable home on Ash Street, not far from Harvard Square. By the mid-1980s, their collection was regarded as one of the most nuanced and refined of its kind.

The Freer and Sackler Galleries have had a long and fruitful relationship with Barnet and Burto. The collectors’ interactions with the Freer also began in the 1960s, and they often remarked that the quality of the museum’s collections—as well as the encouragement and hospitality that staff extended to them in those early years—led to a special bond. In 1998, Barnet and Burto donated an important Kamakura-period narrative scroll fragment (Heike kindachi soshi, F1998.300) to the museum in honor of its seventy-fifth anniversary. And in 2005, Barnet and Burto donated to the Freer an exceptionally rare and important seventh-century Buddhist bronze sculpture (The Buddha at Birth, F2005.9a–b).

William Burto passed away in July 2013 after a long battle with cancer. He was 92, and he and Sylvan Barnet had been partners for more than 60 years. That Burto survived the sinking of his ship at Guadalcanal in 1943 and went on to develop a passion for and deeply sophisticated knowledge of Japanese art is a particularly striking fact of his accomplished life.

Sutra container with sacred gem top

Japan, mid-8th century

Bronze container

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto

Heike kindachi soshi 

Japan, 13th century Handscroll mounted as hanging scroll; ink on paper Gift of Mr. Sylvan Barnet and Mr. William Burto in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Freer Gallery of Art

Section of 'The Former Affairs of the Bodhisattva Medicine King,' chapter 23 of the Lotus Sutra

Japan, mid-12th century

Handscroll (mounted as hanging scroll); ink on paper, with gold-leaf ruled lines, gold-leaf and silver-leaf decoration, and painted decoration in margins

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto

Section of "The Emergence of the Treasure Tower," chapter 11 of the Lotus Sutra

Japan, 12th century

Handscroll (mounted as a hanging scroll); ink on paper with thin mica coating and mica-stamped decoration

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto

The Heart Sutra

Japan, ca. 755

Handscroll (mounted as hanging scroll); ink on paper

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto

Section of “Way of Repentance” in the Lotus Sutra (Hokke sanbō)

Japan, mid-12th century

Facing pages from a book mounted as hanging scroll; ink, color, gold, and silver on paper

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto

The Buddha at Birth

Japan, 7th century

Gilt bronze

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto in honor of Yanagi Takashi

Lotus Sutra, chapters 24–25

Japan, 1141

Gilt copper plaque

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto

Section of "The Wonderful Adornments of the Leaders of the World," chapter 1 of the Flower Ornament Sutra

Japan, ca. 1100

Handscroll (mounted as hanging scroll); ink on light indigo-dyed paper, with gold-ruled lines and gold-leaf foil flakes

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto

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