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Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Procession of Daoist Deities: Leaf 1
1200s
- Medium
- Album; ink on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting: 34.3 x 38.5 cm (13 1/2 x 15 3/16 in.); Overall: 38.9 x 41.5 cm (15 5/16 x 16 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund in honor of Dr. Ju-hsi Chou and Gift of various donors to the department of Asian Art (by exchange)
- 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
Leaf 1 portrays one of the three supreme deities in the Daoist religion. Dressed in a garment and hat similar to that of an earthly emperor, this heavenly being holds a tablet in a posture also reminiscent of a mortal ruler. He is shaded by a pair of fans, surrounded by female consorts and their maidens, and attended by ministerlike figures on both sides. Again, as seen in the mundane world, two guards holding weapons stand immediately in front of and below the platform that supports this majestic figure.
Despite the symmetry and hierarchical composition, the whole scene comes alive in a wonderful sense of clarity and subtlety. Sketched in fine lines and evincing a wonderful sense of flow, especially in the draperies, the figural group is fully integrated in an architectural setting that is just as exquisite.
