Amitabha (mid-1000s): Art, History and Details

Amitabha (mid-1000s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This delicately crafted statue of Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, bears testimony to the flowering of Buddhist art under the Liao Empire established by the Khitans, a nomadic Mongolian people, after the Tang persecution of Buddhists in 845. The Liao rulers were devout Buddhists who commissioned substantial religious projects. Liao Buddhist artifacts reflecting close ties to the Tang traditions were likely executed by displaced or enslaved artisans as a result of the Khitan conquest of northern China.

Object facts

• Title: Amitabha
• Date: mid-1000s
• Culture: China, Yunnan province, Dali kingdom (938–1253)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilt bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 23 cm (9 1/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Liao Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1942.1082

A detail from the museum

This gilt bronze Buddha is similar in style to another rare piece in the Shanghai Museum, which bears an inscription dating it to 1043, the second year of the Shengming reign of the Dali kingdom.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "The Cleveland Museum of Art Annual Report Issue for the Year 1942." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 30, no. 4 (1943): 35-54.
• The Arts of the T'ang Dynasty; A Loan Exhibition Organized by the Los Angeles County Museum from Collections in America, the Orient, and Europe, January 8-February 17, 1957. Los Angeles, CA: The Los Angeles County Museum, 1957.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.