尺寸: 106.8 x 58.9 cm
年代: 宋代(968年)
质地: Ink and color on silk
风格: 中原 莫高窟
来源: 美国弗利尔美术馆
参阅: 外部链接
鉴赏:
Guanyin of the Water Moon 水月觀音菩薩像 (本站也标记为杨柳观音)

Encircled by a flaming halo, this majestic bodhisattva, or enlightened being worshipped in Buddhism, sits cross-legged on a lotus throne. Both the inscription and various attributes, such as the flask and willow branch and the small image of a seated Buddha in the headdress, identify the central figure as that of Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, deliverer from misery. In the Chinese context, Guanyin is generally more familiar from later representations, in which the bodhisattva is presented in female guise. In this earlier Central Asian depiction, however–with its facial hair and bare, flat chest–the deity retains the masculine traits and gender identity of its original Indian manifestation.

The chief of four donors in the lower register is the male figure at right, a member of the Cao family, which at the time ruled the independent kingdom of Shazhou. That kingdom was centered on the oasis of Dunhuang, in modern Gansu Province, located near the eastern edge of the Takla Makan Desert and astride the economically and strategically important Silk Route. In the early years of the twentieth century, a large cache of painted scrolls and documents of various kinds was discovered at the famous Buddhist cave complex at Dunhuang. This scroll is one of the first and best-documented paintings to emerge from that important discovery. To learn more about this and similar objects, visit http://www.asia.si.edu/SongYuan/default.asp Song and Yuan Dynasty Painting and Calligraphy.

Provenance
By 1837-?
Liang Chang-chü (1775-1849), method of acquisition unknown [1]
?-1930
Yamanaka and Co., New York method of acquisition unknown [2]
From 1930
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Yamanaka and Co., New York [3]
Notes:
[1] See Zhangju Liang, “Illustrated Catalogue of Famous Paintings from the Great Collection of the Celebrated Connoisseur of Art, Liang Chang-Chü of Foochow, compiled 1837, translated into English 1919,” [book] (China: 1919), fig. 3 (illustrated). Liang Chang-chü (known also as Liang Zhangju and Liang Tui-an) was a Provincial Administration Commissioner in Guangxi from 1836 to 1841, and in Jiangsu in 1841.
[2] See Yamanaka and Co. invoice to Freer Gallery of Art, January 4, 1930, and marked approved on February 28, 1930, by J. E. Lodge, copy in object file.
[3] See note 2.
Research updated April 18, 2023

Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Exhibition History
Masterpieces of Chinese Painting (IV) (June 12 to November 28, 2010)
Masterpieces of Chinese Painting (III) (May 29, 1999 to January 30, 2000)
Masterpieces of Chinese Painting (II) (May 9, 1993 to May 31, 1994)
Masterpieces of Chinese Painting (I) (August 3, 1984 to February 7, 1985)
Chinese Figure Painting (September 17, 1973 to January 3, 1975)
Chinese Art (January 1, 1963 to March 6, 1981)
Chinese Paintings (June 5, 1957 to January 1, 1963)
Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Painting and Sculpture (November 15, 1944 to February 25, 1956)
Untitled Exhibition, Shahnama and Chinese Art (March 24, 1930 to May 5, 1933)
Stone Sculpture, Buddhist Bronze, and Chinese Painting (May 2, 1923 to February 25, 1956)

Previous custodian or owner
Yamanaka and Co. 山中商会 (1917-1965)
Liang Chang-chü (1775-1849)