Skip Navigation

Standing Bodhisattva

Asian Art

On View: Asian Galleries, Southwest, 2nd floor
With its hands now gone, this Bodhisattva image cannot be definitively identified, but it was probably a Guanyin. Carved from multiple pieces of lightweight, water-resistant paulownia wood, this graceful figure was once covered in bright paint. Guanyin was very popular in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, when the Jin dynasty ruled northeastern China and the Southern Song dynasty ruled the south. Woodcarvers working in both domains at that period made many nearly life-size images of the Bodhisattva.
MEDIUM Wood, traces of polychrome
  • Place Made: China
  • DATES 1115–1234
    DYNASTY Jin Dynasty
    PERIOD Jin Dynasty
    DIMENSIONS 56 5/16 x 18 1/2 x 10 5/8 in., 32 lb. (143 x 47 x 27 cm, 14.52kg) Width at arms: 18 1/2 in. (47 cm) Width at base: 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm) mount (overall): 58 1/2 × 18 × 10 in. (148.6 × 45.7 × 25.4 cm)  (show scale)
    COLLECTIONS Asian Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 37.223
    CREDIT LINE Brooklyn Museum Collection
    EXHIBITIONS
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Asian Galleries, Southwest, 2nd floor
    CAPTION Standing Bodhisattva, 1115–1234. Wood, traces of polychrome, 56 5/16 x 18 1/2 x 10 5/8 in., 32 lb. (143 x 47 x 27 cm, 14.52kg). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Collection, 37.223. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.223_front_PS6.jpg)
    IMAGE front, 37.223_front_PS6.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2013
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.