Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an ink painting. It dates from 1593 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The composition’s emphasis on lotus and Buddhist iconography underscores the artwork’s role as a meditative aid rather than a narrative scene.
The hanging scroll dated 1593 portrays a solitary Bodhisattva standing amid a lotus blossom, a common visual formula in Chinese Buddhist painting of the late Ming period. The figure’s graceful posture, flowing robes, and the lotus, symbolizing purity and enlightenment, convey a devotional focus on compassion and the path to awakening. As an anonymous work held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the piece reflects the anonymous workshop production typical of religious art in China, where spiritual meaning outweighed individual authorship.
The composition’s emphasis on lotus and Buddhist iconography underscores the artwork’s role as a meditative aid rather than a narrative scene.
Technique & Style
The work is executed as a hanging scroll in ink and color on silk, a traditional East Asian format suited to devotional display. Silk as a support demands careful handling, as the woven fibers are susceptible to warping and pigment instability over time. The medium combines monochrome ink with applied color, allowing for both linear definition and chromatic emphasis on the Buddhist subject matter.
Religious paintings of this type typically employ fine brushwork to delineate iconographic elements such as the bodhisattva figure and the lotus, with color layered over ink underdrawing to model form and convey spiritual presence. The scroll format implies a vertical composition designed for hanging and contemplative viewing, consistent with late Ming devotional practice.
History & Provenance
The painting, executed in ink and color on silk as a hanging scroll, is dated to 1593 and was produced in China. It is attributed to an anonymous painter, with no surviving record of the original commission, patron, or early ownership history. The work entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is currently held.
Beyond this institutional accession, the provenance chain prior to the museum's acquisition is not documented in the available records, and no details regarding intermediate owners, dealers, or transfer dates have been preserved.
The work titled Untitled, attributed to an anonymous Chinese painter and dated to 1593, is presently held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The painting, classified as a religious hanging scroll executed in ink and color on silk, is documented in the museum's catalogue as part of its Asian art holdings, though no specific accession or inventory number is provided in the available records. Exhibition history is not detailed in the consulted sources, and thus no exhibition record can be confirmed for this piece.
Overview
This untitled hanging scroll, rendered in ink and color on silk, depicts three slender bodhisattvas gracefully positioned on lotus leaves within a pond. Their elongated robes appear to undulate, suggesting movement akin to ink dispersing in water. One figure holds a vase, another a fan, while the third gestures towards the surrounding lotuses, creating a serene and contemplative scene.
Artist & collection
- 地蔵菩薩来迎図|Welcoming Descent of the Bodhisattva Jizō
Willow Kannon
英一蝶筆 地蔵菩薩図|Jizō Bosatsu
Monju as a Child (Chigo Monju)
Kannon Bosatsu (Princess Teruko)
Welcoming Descent of Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Light, and His Holy Retinue
Triad of the Medicine Master Buddha Yakushi (Bhaisajya Buddha)
Samantabhadra
白衣観音図|White-Robed Kannon
Welcoming Descent of Jizō
아미타불과 지장보살도 고려|阿彌陀佛・地藏菩薩圖 高麗|Amitabha and Kshitigarba
十二天像(梵天)|One of the Twelve Devas: Bonten