Bodhidharma Meditating Facing a Cliff (late 1200s): Art, History and Details
Bodhidharma Meditating Facing a Cliff at the Cleveland Museum of Art: late 1200s, Hanging scroll; ink on silk. Explore the work's context, creator attribution and collection history.
Bodhidharma Meditating Facing a Cliff (late 1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.
The work and its context
The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:
Bodhidharma is the legendary founder of Chan (Zen) Buddhism in China. Here he is seen meditating in front of a cliff, atop Mount Song. Behind him is his disciple Huike, the first recipient of his teaching.
Object facts
- Title: Bodhidharma Meditating Facing a Cliff
- Date: late 1200s
- Culture: China, Song dynasty (960-1279)
- Type: Painting
- Technique: Hanging scroll; ink on silk
- Dimensions: Painting only: 116.5 x 46.4 cm (45 7/8 x 18 1/4 in.); Overall with knobs: 203.2 x 63.5 cm (80 x 25 in.)
- Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
- Department: Chinese Art
- Accession number: 1972.41
A detail from the museum
Rough and calligraphic brushwork for landscape and drapery contrasts with more psychologically penetrating representation of the two protagonists' faces.
Collection credit
John L. Severance Fund
Further reading listed by the museum
- To-So Gen-Min meigwa tai kwan 唐宋元明名畫大觀. Tōkyō: Ōtsuka Kōgeisha, 1930.
- Okada, Saburōsuke 岡田三郎助, Rinpū Sasagawa 笹川臨風, and Yoneame Iizuka 飯塚米雨. Nihonga taisei 日本畫大成. Tōkyō: Tōhō Shoin, 1931.
- Harada, Kinjirō 原田謹次郎. Shina meiga hōkan [支那名畫寶鑒 = The pageant of Chinese painting]. Tōkyō: Ōtsuka Kōgeisha, 1936.
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.
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