The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 20, 2026

A gilt bronze sculpture depicts Amitabha seated between two figures on lotus pedestals. Amitabha has hair with circular curls and his right hand raised, fingers curving toward his thumb. To our left, a shaven figure holds a small sphere. To our right, a figure wears a tall headdress. Both side figures have one leg dangling off their pedestals. Flakes of gilding have worn away to reveal the dark brown bronze underneath.

Amitabha Triad

1400s

Korea, Joseon dynasty

(1392–1910)
bronze with traces of gilding
Overall: 40.6 x 16.5 x 54.6 cm (16 x 6 1/2 x 21 1/2 in.)
Worcester R. Warner Collection 1918.501
Location: 236 Korean

Did You Know?

The small scale suggests that this rare bronze triad might have been displayed in a personal shrine rather than a large worship hall.

Description

This bronze triad depicts Amitabha, the Buddha of Western Paradise, at the center, flanked by two bodhisattvas: Ksitigarbha on his left and Avalokiteśvara on his right. Ksitigarbha is believed to rescue those tormented beings from purgatory, while Avalokiteśvara offers relief to those suffering in the mortal realm.

An exceptionally rare statue from the 1400s, this piece entered the CMA’s collection in 1918. It was discovered in Korea in 1916 by Langdon Warner (1881–1955), who was serving as the CMA’s field agent. In a letter dated December 4, 1916, Warner expressed not only his excitement upon finding the triad in a local pawn shop but also his satisfaction at purchasing it at a significantly reduced price.
  • 1916–1918
    Worcester R. Warner [1846–1929], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1918–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Warner, Langdon. "Bronze Korean Trinity." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 7, no. 6 (1920): 79–80. Reproduced: Front Matter; Mentioned: pp. 79–80 www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman E. Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1942. Mentioned: cat. no. 89, p. 35; Reproduced: cat. no. 89, p. 61
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 892 archive.org
    Kim, Hongnam. The Story of a Painting: A Korean Buddhist Treasure from the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation. New York: Asia Society Galleries, 1991. Mentioned: p. 47, cat. no. 4; Reproduced: p. 4, fig. 8
    Cunningham, Michael R., "Land of Morning Calm", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 37 no. 07, September 1997. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 4–5 archive.org
    Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 239
    May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned: no. 94, pp. 85–86, p. 119; Reproduced: p. 86
    Choe, Song-eun. “About Amitabha Buddha Images of the Late Unified Silla and Early Goryeo Periods [나말여초 아미타불상의 도상적 고찰].” Kangjwa misulsa (2006): 213–234. www.dbpia.co.kr
    Lee, So-young, Ja-hyun Kim Haboush, Sun-pyo Hong, and Chin-Sung Chang. Art of the Korean Renaissance, 1400-1600. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009. Reproduced: p. 34. cat. no. 13, Mentioned: p. 101
    Yim, Nam-su and Jeong Eun-woo. “Changes in Fashioning Small Gilt Bronze Buddhist Statues and their Techniques from the Late Goryeo to Early Joseon Periods [여말선초 소금동불의 유행과 제작기법의 변화]." Misul sahak (2010): 259–290. www.dbpia.co.kr
    Glassman, Hank. The Face of Jizō: Image and Cult in Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2012. Reproduced: p. 77, fig 2.11
    Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 130–131
    Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2014.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 252
    “A Walking Tour: The entire new museum wing by wing, with curators calling out a few favorite works in the collection.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 54, no. 1 (January/February 2014): 8–33. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 29 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, OH]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 31
    Song, Un-sok. "Korea's Joseon-Dynasty Buddhist Sculptures in American Museums" In Arts of Korea: Histories, Challenges, and Perspectives, edited by Jason Steuber, and Allysa B. Peyton, 218–243. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 222, fig. 10.2
    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: pp. 23–24, fig. 9
    Ch'a, Mi-rae, Kwi-suk An, Cleveland Museum of Art, and 국외소재문화재재단. The Korean Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Edited by An Min-hŭi. First edition, English ed. Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Series, 16. Seoul, Republic of Korea: Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, 2021. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 142–145, no. 99
  • Like a Lotus Unstained by Mud. Hoam Museum of Art, Kyunggi-do, Korea (Republic of) (March 19-June 23, 2024) https://www.leeumhoam.org/hoam/exhibition/77.
    Korean Art in Early Chosön, 1400-1600. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 17-June 21, 2009).
    Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 1942).
  • {{cite web|title=Amitabha Triad|url=false|author=|year=1400s|access-date=20 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1918.501