The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of January 28, 2023

The Fourth King of Hell

late 1300s

Korea, Goryeo dynasty

(918-1392)

Hanging scroll, ink, color, and gold ink on silk

Image: 63 x 45.3 cm (24 13/16 x 17 13/16 in.); Overall: 136.2 x 58.9 cm (53 5/8 x 23 3/16 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund and museum purchase from various donors by exchange and Partial Gift of The Honorable Joseph P. Carroll and Roberta Carroll, M.D. 2019.224

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

As the concept of salvation became increasingly more emphasized in Buddhist schools in medieval East Asia, the gruesome depiction of various hells was given an important role: to promote Buddhist ethics. In the Buddhist infernal otherworld, the Ten Kings of Hell serve as judges of the deceased to determine their fates, including the type and severity of punishment.

Description

Originally part of a set of ten, this hanging scroll depicts the Fourth King of Hell. Accompanied by his secretary, the king with bulging eyes is seated at the center, overseeing how well his verdict is being conducted. On the bottom, sinners are suffering in a giant cauldron filled with boiling water, constantly pierced by a guard’s burning spears. Ready-made Buddhist paintings from China, created in professional workshops in the port city of Ningbo, are believed to be prototypes for this Korean scroll’s grotesque imagery.

Provenance
c. 1961–1992
Harry G.C. Packard [1914–1991]
October 26, 1992
(Christie's, New York, NY, October 26, 1992 sale, sold to Joseph Carroll)
October 26, 1992–December 2, 2019
The Honorable Joseph P. Carroll and Roberta Carroll, M.D., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, by Sebastian Izzard, LLC, New York, NY
2019–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
The First King of Hell from the same set is in the collection of Harvard Art Museums. www.harvardartmuseums.org
Mizuno Keizaburo. "Juo-zu." Kokka 829 (April, 1961). pp. 152-58
Chee-yun Kwon. "The Ten Kings from the Former Packard Collection. Oriental Art 55, No. 2 (2005): 28-36.
 Reproduced: p. 29, fig. 1c
Lippit, Yukio. "Goryeo Buddhist Painting in an Interregional Context." Ars Orientalis 35 (2008): 192-232. www.jstor.org
Masterpieces of Goryeo Buddhist Painting [고려 불화 대전 ]. Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2010. pp. 170-175
Jeong, Woo-taek. “The Selection and Transformation of Chinese Buddhist painting in the Goryeo Period [고려의 중국불화 선택과 변용].” Misulsa yeongu (2011): 109-136. www.dbpia.co.kr
Ide Seinosuke. “Buddhist Paintings from the Song and the Yuan Dynasties: Visual Representations in the Paintings of Devotional Deities.” The International Journal of Korean Art and Archaeology (2011): 94-115.
Pak, Eun-kyung 박은경. “About Silk and Enshrinement Practice of Goryeo Buddhist Painting [高麗佛畵의 변죽: 本地, 畵幅, 奉安에 대한 問題].” Misulsa nondan 美術史 論壇 (2012): 35-65. www.dbpia.co.kr
Kim, Jung-hee. "The Patrons and Donors of Goryeo Buddhist Paintings [高麗佛畵의 發願者와 施主者].” Kangjwa misulsa 강좌 미술사 (2012): 251-284.
Kwon, Cheeyun Lilian. Efficacious Underworld: The Evolution of Ten Kings Paintings in Medieval China and Korea. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2019.
McCormick, Sooa Im. “Acquisitions 2019.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 60, no. 2 (March/April 2020): 12–13. Reproduced: P. 12; Mentioned: P. 13.
Griswold, William M. “Recent Acquisitions (2013-20) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Burlington Magazine 163, no. 1414 (January 2021): 93-104. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 102, no. 18; mentioned: p. 93
McCormick, Sooa Im. "The Past and Present of the Korean Collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art." In The Korean Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Ch'a, Mi-rae, Kwi-suk An, Cleveland Museum of Art, 국외소재문화재재단, and An Min-hŭi, ed., 22-37. First edition, English ed. Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Series, 16. Seoul, Republic of Korea: Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 30-31, fig. 24
Exhibition history

Metropolitan Museum of Art (1977).

Masterpieces of Goryeo Buddhist Paintings. National Museum of Korea, Seoul, South Korea (October 12-November 21, 2010).

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

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2019.224