Two Bodhisattvas Burning Ritual Incense

Former TitleTwo Puja Bodhisattvas Burning Incense

CultureChinese

Dateca. 951-953 C.E.

MediumInk and color on clay

DimensionsOverall: 69 × 35 1/2 × 1 1/2 inches (175.26 × 90.17 × 3.81 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. C. T. Loo

Object number50-64 A

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionTwo standing figures adorned with elaborate drapery, scarves, and jewelry, and preparing incense in a large-stemmed incense burner.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

These two bodhisattvas were once part of an ensemble of painted and sculptured figures in a temple that followed esoteric forms of Buddhism in China. Esoteric Buddhism emphasized various rituals, represented here by an incense burner. One figure lifts the lid of an elaborate burner, while the other drops incense into the vessel. On the right, an elegant hand, holding a rope of jewels, remains from a third figure who was also taking part in the ritual. The burner and two covered boxes on the table derive from the style of Tang silverware.

Provenance

With C. T. Loo, Inc., New York, by 1950;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1950.

Published References

Osvald Siren, “The Chinese Pavilion of C.T. Loo & Co. And Its Fresco Paintings,” Pantheon, Brand II, (July-December, 1928), 548 (repro.).

C.T. Loo & Company. Chinese Frescos of Northern Song. 1949.

James Roth, “The Separation of two layers of ancient Chinese wall-painting” Artibus Asiae, XV ½, (1952), 145-149

Laurence Sickman, “An Early Chinese Wall-Painting Newly Discovered,” Artibus Asiae, vol. XV, ½ (1952), 140, fig. 2 (repro.).

“Hidden goddess” Time. (Mar 16, 1953), 76.

“Two Frescoes For One: Museum Gets Rare Chinese Mural, Finds Rarer One Underneath,” Life Magazine, vol. 35 (October 5, 1953):152 (repro.).

Winifred Shields, “A Miracle in Art At Nelson Gallery,” The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri), March 1, 1953, G (repro.).

Fritz Neugass, “Die sensationelle Entdeckung eines kostbaren frühchinesischen Freskos,” Die Weltkunst xxiv, no. 1 (January 1, 1954), 11 (repro.).

Myers, Mahler et al., Encyclopedia of Painting (New York: Crown , 1955), no. 33, 90 (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), 195 (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) 48 (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) 313 (repro.).

Stephen Little, “Early Chinese Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies Vol. 22, No. 1, (1996): 39, fig. 2, doi:10.2307/4104357 (repro.).

Richard M. Barnhart, “The Five Dynasties (907 – 960) and the Song Period (960 – 1279)” in Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (Yale University Press, 1997), 86-137, fig. 82.

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) 334, fig. 159 (repro.).

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