In the summer of 1586, nine lotus flowers in the Ming imperial palace issued double blooms, a rare occurrence that was seen as an auspicious omen. That the flowers bloomed in the residence of the Empress Dowager Cisheng, mother of the emperor, was particularly favorable, for Cisheng was a devout Buddhist who had dreamed of her own incarnation as Guanyin. This painting is one of several Cisheng commissioned to celebrate the occasion. The composition, which places the boy pilgrim Shancai (Sudhana, in Sanskrit) before a maternal bodhisattva in a palace setting, strongly suggests that we are meant to see Cisheng as Guanyin. The square red seals in the upper left belong to Cisheng and her son, Emperor Wanli.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Guanyin as the Nine-Lotus Bodhisattva
Artist:Unidentified artist , late 16th century
Period:Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Date:1593
Culture:China
Medium:Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions:Image: 72 3/8 × 44 1/8 in. (183.8 × 112.1 cm) Overall with mounting: 119 7/8 × 54 in. (304.5 × 137.2 cm) Overall with knobs: 119 7/8 × 58 1/2 in. (304.5 × 148.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1918
Object Number:18.139.2
Inscription: Artist’s inscription (1 column in standard script)
Made in the guisi year of the Wanli reign era of the great Ming dynasty [1593].
大明萬曆癸巳年製。
Collectors’ seals
Cisheng Empress Dowager 慈聖皇太后 (mother of the Shenzong Emperor, d. 1614) 慈聖宣文明肅皇太后之寶
Ming emperor Shenzong 明神宗 (r. 1572–1620) 讚曰：惟我聖母，慈仁格天。感斯嘉垂，闕產瑞蓮。加大士像，圖寫流傳。延國福民，齊壤同堅。
Illegible: 3
[ Yamanaka & Co. , until 1918; sold to MMA]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Manifestations of the Merciful Bodhisattva: Kannon," 1989.
New York. Asia Society. "The Story of a Painting: The Korean Buddhist Treasure from the Burke Foundation," April 23, 1991–July 28, 1991.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Traditional Scholarly Values at the End of the Qing Dynasty: The Collection of Weng Tonghe (1830–1904)," June 30–January 3, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The World of Scholars' Rocks: Gardens, Studios, and Paintings," February 1–August 20, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Millennium of Chinese Painting: Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," September 8, 2001–January 13, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan II," March 22–September 21, 2003.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Secular and Sacred: Scholars, Deities, and Immortals in Chinese Art," September 10, 2005–January 8, 2006.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Another World Lies Beyond: Chinese Art and the Divine," August 24, 2019–January 5, 2020.
Weidner, Marsha, ed. Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001, pp. 128–29, fig. 5.7.
Weidner, Marsha. "Images of the Nine-Lotus Bodhisattva and the Wanli Empress Dowager." Chungguksa yongu 中國史研究 (The Journal of Chinese Historical Researches) no. 35 (April 30, 2005) pp. 245–278, fig. 1. http://210.101.116.28/W_files/kiss3/07200492_pv.pdf (accessed July 12, 2018).
Wu Meifeng 吴美凤. "Mingdai gongting huihuashi waiyizhang—cong Cisheng Huangtaihou de ‘huizao’ tanqi 明代宫廷绘画史外一章—丛慈圣皇太后的“绘造”谈起" (A note on the history of Ming dynasty court painting—beginning with the “invented images” by the Empress Dowager Cisheng). Gugong xuekan 故宫学刊10 (February 2013) pp. 266–310, on p. 285, fig. 17.
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