Shakyamuni Triad: Buddha Attended by Manjushri and Samantabhadra (Buddha) (late 1300s): Art, History and Details

Shakyamuni Triad: Buddha Attended by Manjushri and Samantabhadra (Buddha) (late 1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This triptych is a rare example of Yuan Buddhist painting. It depicts the historic Buddha Shakyamuni flanked by two attending bodhisattvas, Manjushri (the bodhisattva of wisdom, riding a lion) and Samantabhadra (the bodhisattva of universal virtue, riding an elephant). Below them are others seeking enlightenment: two disciples of the Buddha (Ananada and Kasyapa), two non-Chinese people, a boy with topknots, and a female worshiper. The clouds above and around the divine beings form one scene that illustrates Shakyamuni’s sermon from the Lotus Sutra. This text became an important basis for Buddhist faith throughout East Asia and was central to the Mahayana school of Buddhism.

Object facts

• Title: Shakyamuni Triad: Buddha Attended by Manjushri and Samantabhadra (Buddha)
• Date: late 1300s
• Culture: China, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Painting: 107 x 46.6 cm (42 1/8 x 18 3/8 in.); Overall with knobs: 192.4 x 66.7 cm (75 3/4 x 26 1/4 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2009.342.2

A detail from the museum

Shakyamuni is seated cross-legged on the throne with the hand gesture (mudra) of giving instruction.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ōsaka Shiritsu Bijutsukan 大阪市立美術館. Sō Gen no bijutsu 宋元の美術. Tōkyō: Heibonsha, 1980.
• Fenorosa, Tenshin no mita Ōmi: Meiji 21-nen rinji zenkoku hōmotsu chōsa kara: tokubetsuten [フェノロサ・天心の見た近江 : 明治 21年臨時全国宝物調查から : 特别展]. Ōtsu-shi: Shiga Kenritsu Biwako Bunkakan, Heisei 16 [2004].
• Sō Gen butsuga: kaikan 40-shūnen kinen tokubetsuten [宋元仏画: 開館 40周年記念特別展 = The 40th Anniversary Special Exhibition: Buddhist Paintings of Song and Yuan Dynasties]. Yokohama-shi: Kanagawa Kenritsu Rekishi Hakubutsukan [神奈川県立歴史博物館 = Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History], 2007.

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.