Assembly of Buddhist Deities (1846): Art, History and Details

Assembly of Buddhist Deities (1846) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The central deity in this Buddhist painting is Sākyamuni Buddha, given that he is displaying the earth-touching hand gesture. He is surrounded by several bodhisattvas and disciples. The inscription below, even though partly erased, tells us that the painting was created in 1846 and was hung in the monks’ residential hall.

Object facts

• Title: Assembly of Buddhist Deities
• Date: 1846
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: handscroll; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 78 x 216 cm (30 11/16 x 85 1/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Handscroll
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1918.541

A detail from the museum

The inscription below, even though partly erased, tells us that the painting was hung in the monks’ residential hall.

Collection credit

Director's Contingent Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cunningham, Michael R. "The Korean Art Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Early Years," Korean Culture [= Hanʼguk munhwa] 17, no. 2 (Summer 1986).
• Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2014.
• Yi, Yong-yoon. “Bokjang Dedicated to Buddhist Paintings of the Late Joseon Period [조선후기 佛畵의 腹藏 연구].” Misulsahak yeongu (2016): 121–154.

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.