Seated Amitabha (1300s): Art, History and Details

Seated Amitabha (1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

In Buddhist art, buddhas (supreme beings who entered the world of nirvana) and bodhisattvas (compassionate beings committed to the attainment of enlightenment for others) are two main subjects. The religious role of buddhas and bodhisattvas—to lead all sentient beings to the realm of Buddhahood—is the same, yet visual languages to represent them is different. As shown in this statue, the Buddha is represented as a monk with shaven head and dressed in simple monastic robes. Bodhisattvas, on the other hand, are adorned with elaborate jewelry and a lock of long hair.

Object facts

• Title: Seated Amitabha
• Date: 1300s
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: wood with lacquer and gilding
• Dimensions: Overall: 33 x 21 x 19.8 cm (13 x 8 1/4 x 7 13/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1995.67

A detail from the museum

This Buddhist statue was donated to the museum in memory of Godfrey St. G. M. Gompertz (1904-1992), a pioneering scholar and collector of Korean art, in particular in the area of Goryeo-period celadons.

Collection credit

The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund and partial gift of The Honorable Joseph P. Carroll and Roberta Carroll, M.D. in memory of Godfrey St. G. M. Gompertz

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Major Works,” December 20, 1995, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Cunningham, Michael R., "A Korean icon", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 09, November 1996
• Cunningham, Michael R., "Land of Morning Calm", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 37 no. 07, September 1997

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.