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Shakyamuni Triad: Buddha Attended by Manjushri and Samantabhadra (Buddha)
late 1300s
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting: 107 x 46.6 cm (42 1/8 x 18 3/8 in.); Overall with knobs: 192.4 x 66.7 cm (75 3/4 x 26 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- China, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- 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 triptych is a rare example of Yuan Buddhist painting. It depicts the historic Buddha Shakyamuni flanked by two attending bodhisattvas, Manjushri (the bodhisattva of wisdom, riding a lion) and Samantabhadra (the bodhisattva of universal virtue, riding an elephant). Below them are others seeking enlightenment: two disciples of the Buddha (Ananada and Kasyapa), two non-Chinese people, a boy with topknots, and a female worshiper.
The clouds above and around the divine beings form one scene that illustrates Shakyamuni’s sermon from the Lotus Sutra. This text became an important basis for Buddhist faith throughout East Asia and was central to the Mahayana school of Buddhism.
