Cleveland Museum of Art

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Search the Mountain: Leaf 49

Date: 1200s
Medium: Album, ink on paper
Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
Department: Chinese Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

This extraordinary album has 50 paintings on a variety of religious subjects. They were likely created by several master craftsmen to share with studio apprentices as models for fulfilling commissions. The Jade Emperor and the Daoist pantheon make up the first 26 leaves. The next 14 leaves portray the Buddhist Ten Kings of Hell administering punishments to the dead. The third section, called “Clearing the Mountains,” features divine soldiers, led presumably by the deity Erlang Shen 二郎神, fighting undesirable creatures. Demon-soldiers attack and chain a vicious, rearing dragon amid splashing waves.

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