id: 151541 accession number: 1983.86 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1983.86 updated: 2023-03-14 12:01:22.745000 Bodhisattva, 700s. China, Tang dynasty (618-907). Dry lacquer; overall: 44 x 37 cm (17 5/16 x 14 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Given in memory of Howard Parmelee Eells, Jr. by his wife, Adele Chisholm Eells 1983.86 title: Bodhisattva title in original language: 菩薩 series: series in original language: creation date: 700s creation date earliest: 700 creation date latest: 799 current location: 241C Chinese Buddhist Sculptures creditline: Given in memory of Howard Parmelee Eells, Jr. by his wife, Adele Chisholm Eells copyright: --- culture: China, Tang dynasty (618-907) technique: dry lacquer department: Chinese Art collection: China - Tang Dynasty type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 44 x 37 cm (17 5/16 x 14 9/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Year in Review for 1983 opening date: 1984-02-22T05:00:00 The Year in Review for 1983. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 22-April 8, 1984). title: The Twain Shall Meet opening date: 1985-10-30T05:00:00 The Twain Shall Meet. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 1985-January 5, 1986). title: Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2009-06-27T04:00:00 Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * The Arts of the Sung Dynasty. Arts Council of Great Britain and the Oriental Ceramic Society, London, England (June 16–July 23, 1960). * The Mount Trust Collection of Chinese Art. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England (January-March 1970). --- PROVENANCE (C.T. Loo 盧芹齋 [1880–1957], Paris, France) date: by 1933–? footnotes: citations: The Mount Trust of Captain Vivian Francis [1891–1968] and Mrs. Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt Bulkeley-Johnson [1900–1976], Churchill, Oxfordshire, England date: ?–1983 footnotes: citations: (Christie's, London, England, 19 April 1983 sale, lot 42) date: 19 April 1983 footnotes: citations: (J. E. Eskenazi, Ltd., London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: 1983 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1983– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: While lacquer is tough and impervious to insects, it is less durable than wooden or stone sculptures, so this is a rare surviving Tang example. digital description: wall description: The bodhisattva, an enlightened being dedicated to the spiritual awakening of all beings, is shown sitting in a relaxed pose, the eyes half-closed in an expression of profound meditation. The statue is modeled in a sensuous manner.

It is made using the dry lacquer technique whereby a clay core is first constructed and then overlaid with fabrics saturated with lacquer. Once the lacquer layers are set, the core is removed. This kind of hollow dry lacquer statue is lightweight and easy to carry.

The piece once suffered from severe surface retouching that distorted its original beauty. The museum's conservation work has removed coats of overpainting and over-restoration, revealing the true appearance of the glossy black lacquered surface with traces of cut-gold decoration and pigments. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Fischer, Otto. "Chinesische Lacksculptur." Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, IX (1933), 75–77. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: Pl. 16, fig. 2 url: Gray, Basil. Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Arts of the Sung Dynasty. London: Arts Council of Great Britain and the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1960. page number: Mentioned: no. 292 url: Ayers, John G. The Mount Trust Collection of Chinese Art. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1970. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 69 url: Christie, Manson & Woods Limited. Fine Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes, Ivories and Works of Art: The Properties of F.A. Fairbairn; Mrs. Anne How; Lady Neville; R.H. Newsholme; Dr. Marcos Tang; the Mount Trust; the Lord Walpole and from Various Sources; Which Will Be Sold at Christie's Great Rooms on Tuesday 19 April 1983. London: Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd., 1983. page number: Lot 42 url: Turner, Evan H. “Year in Review for 1983.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (1984): 38–79. page number: Mentioned: no. 237, pp. 47 and 77; Reproduced: no. 237, p. 46 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159848 Lee, Sherman E. "A Dry Lacquer Buddhist Image from T'ang China." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 3 (1984): 90–99. page number: Mentioned: pp. 90–99; Reproduced: figs. 1-5, 10 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159853 La Chronique des Arts Supplement a la Gazette des Beaux Arts, no. 1382 (March 1984). page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 21, no. 132 url: Candace Lewis, "Report from America (East Coast)." Oriental Art, n.s. XXX, no. 3 (Autumn 1984), pp. 293–294. page number: url: Dempsey, James H. “The Annual Report for 1984.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 4 (1985): 242–98. page number: Mentioned: pp. 261, 267; Reproduced: p. 267 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159905 Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, 1985, pp. 326–359. page number: Reproduced: p. 342, fig. 32 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159914 Hollendonner, Frederick L., "Restoration of an early Chinese Hollow Dry Lacquer Figure." In The Conservation of Far Eastern Art: Preprints of the Contributions to the Kyoto Congress, 19-23 September 1988. John S. Mills, Perry Smith, and Kazuo Yamasaki, editors. London: International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, 1988. page number: Mentioned: pp. 146-148; Reproduced: figs. 1–4 url: Slusser, Mary Shpherd. "The Art of East Asian Lacquer Sculptures." Orientations vol. 27, no. 1 (Jan. 1996): pp. 16–30. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 19, fig. 6 url: Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 46–47 url: Sun, Di 孙迪, editor. Zhongguo liu shi hai wai Fo jiao zao xiang zong he tu mu [中国流失海外佛教造像总合图目= Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Statues in Overseas Collections]. Beijing: Wai wen chu ban she, 2005. page number: vol. 6, p. 1226 url: Chung, Anita. "A Connoisseur's Eye, A Scholar's Mind: The Legacy of Sherman Lee." Orientations vol. 40, no. 5 (2009). page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 31, fig. 5 url: Chung, Anita. "Two Bodhisattva Images in The Cleveland Museum of Art." Orientations vol. 41, no. 8 (Nov./Dec. 2010): pg. 89–92. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 89–90, fig. 1 and 1a-b url: Eskenazi, Giuseppe, and Hajni Elias. A Dealer's Hand: The Chinese Art World Through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi. London, England: Scala, 2012. page number: p. 58 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 96 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1983.86/1983.86_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1983.86/1983.86_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1983.86/1983.86_full.tif