Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Procession of Daoist Deities: Leaf 11 (1200s): Art, History and Details

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Procession of Daoist Deities: Leaf 11 (1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This album leaf depicts the Four Daoist Saints in martial garb from right to left: Field Marshal Tianpeng 天蓬大元帥, Vice Marshal Tianyou 天猷副元帥, True Lord Yisheng (He Who Cherishes Virtues 翊聖寶德真君), and True Lord Yousheng 祐聖真君. In addition, the painter added the figure of Cang Jie 蒼頡, the legendary inventor of written language. Marshal Tianpeng is represented in the manner of a Buddhist asura, with three faces and six arms.

Object facts

• Title: Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Procession of Daoist Deities: Leaf 11
• Date: 1200s
• Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Album; ink on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 34.2 x 38.3 cm (13 7/16 x 15 1/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Album leaf
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2004.1.11

A detail from the museum

Marshal Tianpeng’s top two arms hold the sun with the three-legged crow and the moon with the rabbit pounding the elixir of life.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund in honor of Dr. Ju-hsi Chou and Gift of various donors to the department of Asian Art (by exchange)

Further reading listed by the museum

• Martin, F. R. Zeichnungen nach Wu tao-tze aus der götter- und sagenwelt Chinas. München: F. Bruckmann a.g, 1913.
• Giuffrida, Noelle. Representing the Daoist God Zhenwu, the Perfected Warrior, in Late Imperial China. PhD diss. University of Kansas, 2008.
• Gesterkamp, Lennert. The Heavenly Court: Daoist Temple Painting in China, 1200-1400. Leiden: Brill, 2011.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.