The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Bodhisattva

Bodhisattva

700s

Did You Know?

While lacquer is tough and impervious to insects, it is less durable than wooden or stone sculptures, so this is a rare surviving Tang example.

Description

The bodhisattva, an enlightened being dedicated to the spiritual awakening of all beings, is shown sitting in a relaxed pose, the eyes half-closed in an expression of profound meditation. The statue is modeled in a sensuous manner.

It is made using the dry lacquer technique whereby a clay core is first constructed and then overlaid with fabrics saturated with lacquer. Once the lacquer layers are set, the core is removed. This kind of hollow dry lacquer statue is lightweight and easy to carry.

The piece once suffered from severe surface retouching that distorted its original beauty. The museum's conservation work has removed coats of overpainting and over-restoration, revealing the true appearance of the glossy black lacquered surface with traces of cut-gold decoration and pigments.
  • by 1933–?
    (C.T. Loo 盧芹齋 [1880–1957], Paris, France)
    ?–1983
    The Mount Trust of Captain Vivian Francis [1891–1968] and Mrs. Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt Bulkeley-Johnson [1900–1976], Churchill, Oxfordshire, England
    19 April 1983
    (Christie's, London, England, 19 April 1983 sale, lot 42)
    1983
    (J. E. Eskenazi, Ltd., London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1983–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Fischer, Otto. "Chinesische Lacksculptur." Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, IX (1933), 75–77. Mentioned and Reproduced: Pl. 16, fig. 2
    Gray, Basil. Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Arts of the Sung Dynasty. London: Arts Council of Great Britain and the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1960. Mentioned: no. 292
    Ayers, John G. The Mount Trust Collection of Chinese Art. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1970. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 69
    Christie, Manson & Woods Limited. Fine Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes, Ivories and Works of Art: The Properties of F.A. Fairbairn; Mrs. Anne How; Lady Neville; R.H. Newsholme; Dr. Marcos Tang; the Mount Trust; the Lord Walpole and from Various Sources; Which Will Be Sold at Christie's Great Rooms on Tuesday 19 April 1983. London: Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd., 1983. Lot 42
    Turner, Evan H. “Year in Review for 1983.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (1984): 38–79. Mentioned: no. 237, pp. 47 and 77; Reproduced: no. 237, p. 46 www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman E. "A Dry Lacquer Buddhist Image from T'ang China." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 3 (1984): 90–99. Mentioned: pp. 90–99; Reproduced: figs. 1-5, 10 www.jstor.org
    La Chronique des Arts Supplement a la Gazette des Beaux Arts, no. 1382 (March 1984). Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 21, no. 132
    Candace Lewis, "Report from America (East Coast)." Oriental Art, n.s. XXX, no. 3 (Autumn 1984), pp. 293–294.
    Dempsey, James H. “The Annual Report for 1984.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 4 (1985): 242–98. Mentioned: pp. 261, 267; Reproduced: p. 267 www.jstor.org
    Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, 1985, pp. 326–359. Reproduced: p. 342, fig. 32 www.jstor.org
    Hollendonner, Frederick L., "Restoration of an early Chinese Hollow Dry Lacquer Figure." In The Conservation of Far Eastern Art: Preprints of the Contributions to the Kyoto Congress, 19-23 September 1988. John S. Mills, Perry Smith, and Kazuo Yamasaki, editors. London: International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, 1988. Mentioned: pp. 146-148; Reproduced: figs. 1–4
    Slusser, Mary Shpherd. "The Art of East Asian Lacquer Sculptures." Orientations vol. 27, no. 1 (Jan. 1996): pp. 16–30. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 19, fig. 6
    Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 46–47
    Sun, Di 孙迪, editor. Zhongguo liu shi hai wai Fo jiao zao xiang zong he tu mu [中国流失海外佛教造像总合图目= Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Statues in Overseas Collections]. Beijing: Wai wen chu ban she, 2005. vol. 6, p. 1226
    Chung, Anita. "A Connoisseur's Eye, A Scholar's Mind: The Legacy of Sherman Lee." Orientations vol. 40, no. 5 (2009). Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 31, fig. 5
    Chung, Anita. "Two Bodhisattva Images in The Cleveland Museum of Art." Orientations vol. 41, no. 8 (Nov./Dec. 2010): pg. 89–92. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 89–90, fig. 1 and 1a-b
    Eskenazi, Giuseppe, and Hajni Elias. A Dealer's Hand: The Chinese Art World Through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi. London, England: Scala, 2012. p. 58
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 96
  • Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009).
    The Twain Shall Meet. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 1985-January 5, 1986).
    The Year in Review for 1983. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 22-April 8, 1984).
    The Mount Trust Collection of Chinese Art. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England (January-March 1970).
    The Arts of the Sung Dynasty. Arts Council of Great Britain and the Oriental Ceramic Society, London, England (June 16–July 23, 1960).
  • {{cite web|title=Bodhisattva|url=false|author=|year=700s|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1983.86