Seated Amitābha (late 1500s–early 1600s): Art, History and Details

Seated Amitābha (late 1500s–early 1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This magnificent Buddha, called Amitābha (literally, “infinite light”) is seated on a lotus pedestal with both palms facing up over crossed legs, suggesting that it is in deep meditation. In contrast to the richly ornamented throne on which the Buddha is seated, the figure itself is devoid of any jewelry or decorative attributes, emphasizing its enlightened status and detachment from worldly affairs. The lion head in the center of the pedestal is a motif from Central Asia, which can also be seen in the halo or nimbus of Chinese Buddhist stone steles.

Object facts

• Title: Seated Amitābha
• Date: late 1500s–early 1600s
• Culture: Chinese, Ming dynasty (1368-1644)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Overall with knobs: 236.9 x 105.7 cm (93 1/4 x 41 5/8 in.); Painting only: 130.8 x 75 cm (51 1/2 x 29 1/2 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1994.94

A detail from the museum

Originally, this scroll was acquired by the museum as a Korean work, but has now been tentatively reattributed as Ming period Chinese.

Collection credit

Gift of David S. Utterberg and the Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Waterhouse, Helen. Buddhism: Study Guide. Milton Keynes: Open University, 2005.

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.