The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 26, 2024

Buddha Amitābha with Two Attending Bodhisattvas

Buddha Amitābha with Two Attending Bodhisattvas

1200s
(1127-1279)
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Painting: 134 x 79.7 cm (52 3/4 x 31 3/8 in.); Overall with knobs: 224.5 x 101.5 cm (88 3/8 x 39 15/16 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1974.35
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Each line of calligraphy, which invokes the Buddha's name, emerges from a lotus blossom.

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.
  • ?–1974
    (Nakanishi Bunzo, Kyoto, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1974–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 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
  • 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 Gallery 236 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 16, 2018-January 20, 2019).
    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: 1974. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 11-April 6, 1975).
  • {{cite web|title=Buddha Amitābha with Two Attending Bodhisattvas|url=false|author=|year=1200s|access-date=26 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

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