Buddha Amitabha Descending from his Pure Land

Buddha Amitabha Descending from his Pure Land

Unidentified artist

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This painting, traditionally ascribed by Japanese scholars to a Song Buddhist painter named Zhang Sigong, represents the Buddha Amitabha (J.: Amida) welcoming souls into his Western Paradise. The drapery of the robe is drawn in the "scudding-cloud and running-water" style, a drapery pattern the Chinese used to recall the Indian origin of the Buddha image. Infrared reflectography has revealed the following traces of an inscription in the lower left corner: "Qingyuanfu, east of Washing Horse Bridge. . . ." Since the name of the city of Ningbo was changed from Mingzhou to Qingyuanfu in 1195 and to Qingyuanlu in 1277, the painting may be dated to between 1195 and 1277. Stylistically, this work appears to date from the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century: the figure is extremely well drawn, with fine lines firmly describing the splendid face and hands of the image in a fully three-dimensional manner. An almost identical Buddha appears in one of the Daitokuji Five Hundred Luohans paintings, also made in Ningbo and dated 1178.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Buddha Amitabha Descending from his Pure LandBuddha Amitabha Descending from his Pure LandBuddha Amitabha Descending from his Pure LandBuddha Amitabha Descending from his Pure LandBuddha Amitabha Descending from his Pure Land

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.