Seated Guanyin (c. 1450): Art, History and Details

Seated Guanyin (c. 1450) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

A heavily jeweled Guanyin sits in the posture of royal ease on a double-lotus throne. Also known as Avalokitesvara or the Bodhisattava of Compassion, Guanyin postponed achieving enlightenment in order to assist all who cry out for help. This made Guanyin a very popular devotional figure for Buddhists. This gilt bronze's size suggests that it could have been placed on a private altar or shrine for personal devotion.

Object facts

• Title: Seated Guanyin
• Date: c. 1450
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilt bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 22.1 x 16.7 cm (8 11/16 x 6 9/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Ming Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1916.19

A detail from the museum

There are clusters of blossoming lotuses by the figure's shoulders.

Collection credit

Worcester R. Warner Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lerner, Martin. “An ‘International Style’ Wooden Mandala.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 58, no. 9 (November 1971): 269–275.
• Schroeder, Ulrich von. Indo-Tibetan Bronzes. 1st ed. Hong Kong, Glattbrugg, Switzerland: Visual Dharma Publications; Sole distributor, Nanda Distribution, 1981.
• Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan 國立故宮博物院. Hai wai yi zhen. fo xiang [海外遺珎. 佛像= Chinese art in overseas collections. Buddhist sculpture]. Taibei Shi: Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan, 1990.

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.