White-Robed Guanyin (late 1200s–early 1300s): Art, History and Details

White-Robed Guanyin (late 1200s–early 1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jueji Yongzhong (Chinese, active around 1300); Zhongfeng Mingben (Chinese, 1263–1323).

The work and its context

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

Guanyin, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion (Avalokiteshvara, in Sanskrit), reveals himself in many forms. According to Buddhist belief, one such manifestation is the white-robed Guanyin sitting on a rock on the island of Putuo (Potalaka, in Sanskrit), located along the coast not far from Ningbo, in Zhejiang Province, China. Here, the figure was swiftly drawn in only a few ink lines. The inscription above is by Zhongfeng Mingben, perhaps the most widely respected and influential Chan (Zen in Japanese) master in the Yuan dynasty. The artist’s signature is a single line below on the left: Huanzhu Yongzhong.

Object facts

• Title: White-Robed Guanyin
• Date: late 1200s–early 1300s
• Creator attribution: Jueji Yongzhong (Chinese, active around 1300); Zhongfeng Mingben (Chinese, 1263–1323)
• Culture: China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 78.7 x 31.7 cm (31 x 12 1/2 in.); Overall with knobs: 164 x 38 cm (64 9/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1978.47.1

A detail from the museum

The CMA collection includes a drawing by a Japanese priest, CMA 1978.47.2, inspired by this composition.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Toshirō Ebine 海老根聰郎. "'Avalokiteśvara in White' by Huan-chu Yung-chung 幻住永中 白衣觀音図." Kobijutsu 古美術 no. 34, August 1971, pp. 86–96.
• Kannon no kaiga: sono bi to rekishi. Nara, Japan: Yamato Bunkakan, 1974.
• Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan. Gendai doshaku jinbutsuga, tokubetsu tenkan. Tokyo: [publisher not identified], 1975.

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.