Shaka Triad with Sixteen Rakan

Original Language Title釈迦三尊と十六羅漢

CultureJapanese

Date1400-1449

MediumHanging scroll triptych; ink, color, and gold paint on silk

DimensionsOverall: 69 × 63 3/4 inches (175.26 × 161.93 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the Edith Ehrman Memorial Fund and the generosity of John W. Gruber

Object numberF86-27 A-C

On View

Not on view

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionThree hanging scrolls mounted on panels and enclosed by slender cinnabar red lacquered wood frames, the paintings having gilt thread brocade borders with lotus square and rosette motifs. In the center work Sakyamuni is seated atop a high plinth and throne, flanked on either side in front by a Bodhisattva, each seated on a lotus bloom with clouds behind. The Buddha's figure is backed by three haloes, and his hand is in abhaya mudra. In the foreground, each attended by a standing figure, is a lion and an elephant. There are stylized clouds in the immediate foreground. In the left and right panels there are sizteen arhats, eight to each panel. They are attended to by reverent monks and young attendats, with stylized clouds dispersed throughout. Each one also has a green halo behind his head.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Journey of the Three Jewels, Harvard Fogg Museum,

Asia Society Gallery, New York, NY, 1979

The Light of Asia, Los Angeles County Museum, 1984

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1984

The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, 1984

Gallery Label

This set of paintings would once have occupied a central place on an altar of a Buddhist temple. The Buddha Shaka, an enlightened being, sits in the center. His attendant Bodhisattvas flank the Buddha. Bodhisattvas are beings capable of attaining enlightenment, but who have chosen to remain in this world to save humankind. The two side panels depict sixteen Rakan, monks who vow to preach on earth until the coming of the future Buddha. Rakans are often represented as ugly and old because, while they possess spiritual powers, they still struggle for enlightenment.

Provenance

With John W. Gruber, New York, by November 4, 1986;

His partial gift/partial sale to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1986.

Published References

Roger Ward, ed., A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions, 1977-1987, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1987), no.41, 100-101.

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 The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 358.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), no.16, 384.

John Max Rosenfield, Journey of the Three Jewels: Japanese Buddhist Paintings from Western Collections, exh. cat. (New York: Asia Society, 1978) no.3, fig. 3, 28-29, 46-49.

Pratapaditya Pal, The Light of Asia, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984), no. 144, 277-78.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, “Museum Acquires Japanese triptych” in “New at the Nelson” Calender (October 1987): 2.

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