Kshitigarbha
Kshitigarbha standing with a ringed staff and a jewel, a 14th-century Goryeo Buddhist painting with traces of gold and color. Full commentary ↓
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Kshitigarbha is a painting by an unknown maker (first half of the 14th century) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 84.5 × 36.8 cm.
In the pictureWithin a blue silk mounting stands a bodhisattva with a shaved head, holding a transparent jewel in his left hand and a long staff with rings in his right. A round halo rises behind his head, and his robe is red and green with patterns in gold. Beneath his feet is a lotus pedestal.
BackgroundKshitigarbha is the bodhisattva who saves living beings, especially those fallen into hell, in the age when no Buddha is present. Unlike other bodhisattvas, who wear crowns, he is shown with a shaved head like a monk, and his attributes are the ringed staff that opens the gates of hell and the jewel that lights the darkness. Devotion to Kshitigarbha spread widely in the Goryeo period, and many single-figure paintings like this one were made.
Puzzle tipThe painting is tall and narrow, so the pieces are long and slim. The round line of the halo, the long straight line of the staff, and the red robe and green garment pieces each serve as clues. Run the blue mounting pieces around the edges first, and fill the dark background starting with pieces that touch the halo and the outline of the figure.
- Period
- Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
- Culture
- Korea
- Classification
- Paintings
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk
- Dimensions
- 84.5 × 36.8 cm
- Credit line
- H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Gift of Horace Havemeyer, 1929
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
Stories about this work
- The Gold Lines of Goryeo Buddhist Paintings Only Appear When You Zoom In
Goryeo Buddhist paintings are exquisite down to each fine gold line. We assemble four from the Met, including Water-moon Avalokiteshvara, telling them apart by what the figures hold and how their robes are rendered.
- Always Start with the Border? Paintings Where the Edge Strategy Works and Where It Doesn't
Doing the border first is not a universal formula. Here is which paintings it works for, which ones it actually slows down, and what share of each difficulty level is border pieces.
