In this illustration of the “Descent of the Buddha Amitabha,” the Buddha and his accompanying bodhisattvas, Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta, are captured in a three-quarter view. The subject of the painting, known as naeyeong do 내영도 來迎圖 in Korean, features Amitabha coming to a faithful believer at death to welcome him to the Western Paradise.

The Buddha’s left hand is raised to his chest, and his right hand is stretched outward, which are the standard hand positions for the descending Amitabha. The bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara holds a kundika bottle in his right hand and a willow branch in his left. Mahasthamprapta, whose upper body is turned slightly to face the front, uses both hands to hold the stem of a lotus bearing a sutra. The postures of the two bodhisattvas provide a sense of movement, which deviates from more conventional depictions of the subject.

The compositional elements and arrangement of this scroll are strikingly similar to those of a painting at Hodoji 法道寺 in Japan.[1] The remarkable resemblance between these works and a third painting at Sen-oku Hakukokan 泉屋博古館 in Japan exemplifies the ways in which models were repeated.[2] However, minor differences can be found in the high ushnisha (a protrusion from the top of the skull of the Buddha, considered one of the thirty-two marks of a great man) and the more square-shaped heads of the Buddha and Mahasthamaprapta. Except for the scroll roundels, the decorative patterns—such as the small circular motifs that densely fill the garments of Avalokiteshvara—make the figures appear less naturalistic. Overall, the figures have lost a degree of tension, and the faces of the attendant bodhisattvas lack a sense of animation due to the overuse of decorative patterns.

The Brooklyn painting does not seem to predate the work in the collection of the Sen-oku Hakukokan 泉屋博古館. Shared characteristics, such as Avalokiteshvara’s relatively small halo, indicate a mid-fourteenth-century date for both, which places them later than the painting at Hodoji 法道寺. Perhaps most important, these three paintings show how compositions were reused and transformed, which is a distinctive feature of Goryeo 고려 高麗 Buddhist painting.

—Chung Woothak, Professor Emeritus, Dongguk University, Seoul

Notes:
[1] For images of the Hodoji 法道寺 painting, see Kikutake Junichi 菊竹淳一 and Chung Woothak 鄭于澤, eds., Kōrai jidai no butsuga 高麗時代の仏画 [The Buddhist paintings of Koryo Dynasty] (Seoul: Sigongsa, 2000), 82–83, pl. 34.

[2] For an image of the Sen-oku Hakukokan 泉屋博古館 painting, see Kikutake Junichi 菊竹淳一 and Chung Woothak 鄭于澤, eds., Kōrai jidai no butsuga 高麗時代の仏画 [The Buddhist paintings of Koryo Dynasty] (Seoul: Sigongsa, 2000), 84, pl. 35.