The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 31, 2023

Buddha Amitābha with Two Attending Bodhisattvas

1200s

China, Southern Song dynasty

(1127-1279)

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Painting: 134 x 79.7 cm (52 3/4 x 31 3/8 in.); Overall: 223 x 95.7 cm (87 13/16 x 37 11/16 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1974.35

Location

not on view

Description

The supreme deities that rule over the Western Paradise—Amitābha (阿彌陀 in Chinese), Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin 觀音), and Mahāsthāmaprāpta (Dashizhi 大勢至)—are here enclosed within a circle of light. To secure entry into that paradise for Buddhist followers of the Pure Land sect, one must recite the phrase namo amituofo (南無阿彌陀佛, Homage to the Buddha Amitābha). Here the phrase is repeated 10 times in calligraphy above the figures, reinforcing the need for continual recitation.

Inscriptions

Inscription

沙門善導

Inscription Translation

Inscription and seal purportedly of Shandao (613-681), Tang dynasty patriarch of the Pure Land school.

Inscription

觀世音菩薩

Inscription Translation

Bodhisattva Guanyin (Avalokiteśvara)

Inscription Remark

Figure on the right

Inscription

大勢至菩薩

Inscription Translation

Dashizhi Bodhisattva (Mahāsthāmaprāpta)

Inscription Remark

Figure on the left

Provenance
?-1974
(Nakanishi Bunzo, Kyoto, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1974-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1974-present
Citations
Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Reproduced: cat. no. 48, pp. 63-65
Shin, Junhyoung Michael. “The Face-to-Face Advent of the Amitābha Triad: A Fifteenth-Century Welcoming Descent.” Cleveland Studies in the History of Art, vol. 6, 2001, pp. 28–47. Reproduced: fig. 8, p. 40 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 29, 2003-March 15, 2004).

Year in Review: 1974. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 11-April 6, 1975).

Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 11-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).

Korean Gallery 236 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 16, 2018-January 20, 2019).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.35