  About the Artwork
  
  
  Avalotikeśvara, or Guanyin in Chinese, is a bodhisattva, or enlightened being, who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. On his path to Buddhahood, a bodhisattva chose to stay behind in the earthly realm to help others to achieve enlightenment.
In this painting, the seated posture with the right leg crossed before the body represents the Water Moon manifestation and the landscape depiction of his personal paradise known as Mount Potalaka, which was thought to be on an island somewhere south of India. This painting, probably created during the fifteenth century in Japan, has classic elements of the Chinese Buddhist figural style. Its closest corollary is a thirteenth-century painting of Avolokiteśvara in the collection of the Yamaguchi Prefecture Museum.
From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)
  
  
  Title
  Water Moon Avalokitesvara
  
  
  Artwork Date
  between 15th and 16th century
  
  Artist
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  Life Dates
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  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Japanese
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  Japanese
  
  
  Medium
  Ink and paint on silk
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 72 3/4 × 24 1/8 inches (184.8 × 61.3 cm)
  Image: 34 1/2 × 16 inches (87.6 × 40.6 cm)
  Storage: 24 x 3 15/16 inches (61 x 10 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  Asian Art
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Acquisition Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2000.88
  
  
  Copyright
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