The Assembly of Tejaprabha Buddha (1878): Art, History and Details

The Assembly of Tejaprabha Buddha (1878) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The main deity seated at the center is Tejaprabha, the Buddha of Radiant Light. Blazing beams of light emanating from its celestial body are this deity’s weapon to crush all kinds of calamities. Coincidently, when this painting was created, Korea was experiencing a height of foreign military aggressions, including invasions by the French (1866) and the US (1871). The inscription at the bottom center states that a group of ladies from the royal court commissioned the scroll to wish for the well-being of their families. During the late Joseon dynasty, Korean women became largely marginalized. Nevertheless, they remained important patrons of Buddhist art and architecture, voicing their concerns for their country and families in peril.

Object facts

• Title: The Assembly of Tejaprabha Buddha
• Date: 1878
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 223 x 226.4 cm (87 13/16 x 89 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1998.120

A detail from the museum

The central Buddha of Radiant Light is flanked by two attendant bodhisattvas, Sunlight and Moonlight, each in reverence posture.

Collection credit

Gift of Mitsuru Tajima

Further reading listed by the museum

• Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2014.
• Yi, Yong-yoon. “Bokjang Dedicated to Buddhist Paintings of the Late Joseon Period [조선후기 佛畵의 腹藏 연구].” Misulsahak yeongu (2016): 121-154.
• Choe, Yeob. “A Study of Subjects in the Inscriptions of Buddhist Paintings [불화 畵記의 畵題 및 명칭 검토].” Misulsa nondan (2017): 205-225.

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.