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Barbarian Royalty Worshiping the Buddha
attributed to Zhao Guangfu (Chinese, c. 923–976)
900s
- Medium
- Handscroll; ink and color on silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting section: 28.6 x 103.5 cm (11 1/4 x 40 3/4 in.); Overall with colophon: 28.6 x 667.7 cm (11 1/4 x 262 7/8 in.)
- Culture
- China, Northern Song dynasty (960–1127)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Severance and Greta Millikin
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This painting begins on the right with 15 people following a dignified figure wearing headgear with twin pheasant feathers. He extends an incense burner toward the Buddha, who is seated on his lotus throne and flanked by two haloed disciples and two Heavenly Kings. The worshipers’ diverse physical features, regional finery, and religious affiliations suggest the universal appeal of Buddhism.
The imagery was inspired by the foreign envoys who frequently came to the Chinese court to give tribute to the emperor. At the time, all outsiders were considered “barbarians,” so their presence was seen as acknowledgment of China’s political and cultural power.
