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Guanyin Bodhisattva

CultureChinese
Dateca. 590-600 C.E.
MediumLight-gray limestone
DimensionsOverall: 52 × 16 × 7 3/4 inches (132.08 × 40.64 × 19.69 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number35-308
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 204
Collections
DescriptionStanding figure, carved in bas-relief. Hands and feet are lacking. Halo broken on either side. Crown with figure of Amida Buddha in center. Jeweled necklaces, one very long strand falling from shoulders to the knees. Stole draped over shoulders, skirt folded over at waist and gathered in pleats.Provenance

Purchased through Laurence Sickman by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.

Published References

Paul Graupe, Berlin. Liquidation sale of Dr. Ott Burchard & Co., Berlin. 29 April 1935. Sale of Chinese art, Buddhist sculpture, lot 1252 (repro.).

Parnassus, Feb. 1936, p. 29 (repro.).

Art News, 37: 18-19, Dec. 3, 1938 (repro.).

University Prints, newton, 1938, Early Chinese art, section II, series O, pl. 171 (repro.).

Ludwig Bachhofer, Short History of Chinese Art, p. 71, fig. 64 (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 512-153, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 109, (repro.).

Hugo Munsterberg, A Short History of Chinese Art (New York, Philosophical library 1949), pl. 25 (repro.).

Mario Prodan, Chinese Art  (New York: 1958), pl. 37 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 188 (repro.).

Tan Danjiong, Chinese Art  (Taipei: 1960), pl. xciv (repro.).

Hugo Munsterberg, Der Ferne Osten (Baden-baden: 1968), 63 (repro.).

Chinese Art in Western Collections. Vol. 3, Sculpture (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1973), pl. 49 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, George L. McKenna, and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. II, Art of the Orient. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 35 (repro.).

Laurence Sickman, “Monsters and Elegance: Nine Centuries of Chinese Sculpture” Apollo Special issue for the Asian art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. XCVII, no. 133, (March 1973), 36, fig. 6 (repro.).

Bradley Smith and Weng Wango, China: A History in Art  (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1979),  122 (repro.).

Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), Cat. 89 (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 306(repro.).

Matsubara Saburō  松原三郎, Chūgoku Bukkyō chōkoku shiron 中国仏教彫刻史論 (Tōkyō : Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, Heisei 7 1995), Plate Vol. II, 541 (repro.).

Amy McNair, “The Ending of the Law and the Hope of Salvation: Some 6th Century Chinese Buddhist Sculptures in The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art” Orientations, Vol. 39, no. 8 ( November/December 2008), 83 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 319, fig. 109 (repro.).

Colin Mackenzie, with contributions by Ling-En Lu, Masterworks of Chinese art: the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2011), 44-45, cat. 10 (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.