The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 16, 2025

White-Robed Guanyin

late 1200s

attributed to Zhang Yuehu

(Chinese, active 1200s)
China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Painting: 104.5 x 42.2 cm (41 1/8 x 16 5/8 in.); Overall with knobs: 195.4 x 61.8 cm (76 15/16 x 24 5/16 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1972.160
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

As an artist, Zhang Yuehu was better known in Japan than in his own country.

Description

The figure here sits on a rocky elevation representing Potalaka in the Southern Sea, Avalokitesvara’s island home. A vase with a bamboo sprig holds pure water, the nectar of life. Bamboo shines through the figure’s halo, a way of seeing the illusionary world through the Buddhist truth.

Avalokitesvara (Guanyin in Chinese), the bodhisattva of compassion, was integrated into the Chan Buddhist canon of venerated beings. In this context, the bodhisattva is often depicted in its female manifestation as the White-Robed Guanyin. The worship of the feminine White-Robed Guanyin has its origins on Mount Tianzhu in Hangzhou, where Qian Liu (852–932), ruler of the Wuyue kingdom, established the Upper Tianzhu Monastery to venerate her image.
  • ?–1972
    (Mayuyama and Company, Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1972–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Mayuyama, Junkichi 繭山順吉. Mayuyama, Seventy Years [Ryūsen shūhō: sōgyō shichijusshūnen kinen = 龍泉集芳 : 創業七十周年記念]. Tōkyō: Mayuyama Ryūsendō 繭山龍泉堂, 1976. Reproduced: vol. II, pl. 165
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 343 archive.org
    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. 66, pp. 84–85
    Rogers, Howard. "Questioning Authority," Orientations (Jan/Feb 2005) vol. 36, no. 1. Mentioned: p. 59; Reproduced: p. 58
    Yujia Fu, Emma. "Configuring a Transoceanic Avalokiteśvara." Res 83 (Spring 2025): 22–48. Mentioned: pp. 27, 36; Reproduced: p. 28 (fig. 3)
  • China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    Chinese Buddhist Gallery Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 10, 2016-August 1, 201).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 29, 2003-March 15, 2004).
    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).
    Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973).
  • {{cite web|title=White-Robed Guanyin|url=false|author=Zhang Yuehu|year=late 1200s|access-date=16 July 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1972.160