Cleveland Museum of Art

The Bodhisattvas of the Ten Stages in Attaining the Most Perfect Knowledge

Date

1454

Medium

hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Culture

China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This painting represents bodhisattvas of the 10 stages of enlightenment undergoing the final processes toward Buddhahood. This and CMA 1973.70.2 form part of a set of scrolls that were used to perform the Water-Land ( shuilu ) ritual. The sinuous curves of scarf and drapery, the layering of garments, and the minute detail all reflect the opulent visual atmosphere that surrounded the Ming worshipper in temples and spirit halls throughout the country. In the upper right corner of each painting is an imperial seal and an inscription in gold: Donated on the third day of the eighth month in the fifth year of the Jingtai reign (1454) of the Great Ming . Written in ink in the lower left corner is the record that they were made on imperial order, probably to present them to the Da Longfu monastery in Beijing. This painting was used in the grandest of the Buddhist mortuary rites, the Water-Land ( shuilu ) ritual, which was conducted for the salvation of “all souls of the dead on land and sea.”

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