Cleveland Museum of Art

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 29

Date

1200s

Medium

Album, ink on paper

Culture

China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This leaf belongs to the album’s second series of narratives, Ten Kings of Hells . It demonstrates a Chinese-Buddhist approach in which the netherworld is divided into ten realms, each ruled by one of these kings. This particular version portrays the king in a benevolent guise, though his identity remains unclear. He is draped in a robe and holds an ivory plaque. A vertical scroll hangs to his left, depicting in the lower two-thirds a rectangular architectural plan with buildings aligned in a symmetrical arrangement not unlike a Buddhist temple or a Confucian shrine. Above, the scene also features a building and could show a specific mountain. One of the Ten Kings is known as the King of Taishan (or Mt. Tai). This depiction would represent a unique treatment of the king, not shared with other renditions of the same figure elsewhere. This King of Hell wears a hat with two slender side arms—similar to the headgear worn by Song dynasty emperors.

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