The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 14, 2025

A sculpture with three bronze Buddhist deities seated on lotus pedestals next to each other. The deity on our left has his right hand raised, holding a small spherical object, and his left hand held near his stomach, his palm facing up. The deity in the middle has short hair with circular curls and hands that are similar to the deity on our left, except the deity in the middle has his left hand's palm facing us, with his middle finger bent to touch his thumb. The deity on our right has his hands down, with his right hand resting on his right leg, which is dangling off the pedestal.

Amitabha Triad

1400s
(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: not on view

Did You Know?

This bronze statue that shows three powerful Buddhist deities was acquired in Korea in 1916 by Langdon Warner (1881–1955), the famous art historian at that time.

Description

This rare bronze triad from the 1400s shows Amitabha (아미타불 in Korean), or the Buddha of the Western Paradise, seated on a lotus pedestal at the center. He is flanked by two sacred attendants, Ksitigarbha (지장보살 in Korean) on his left and Avalokitesvara (관음보살 in Korean) on his right. The combination of these three Buddhist deities was particularly popular in the early Joseon period. The small scale suggests that this triad might have been displayed in a personal shrine rather than a large worship hall.
  • 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: p. 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 & reproduced: p. 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
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: 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: p. 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=14 March 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

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