Bathing of the Buddha Festival

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Arts of Asia

Qing dynasty, 1833

Hua Ziyou 華子宥 (Chinese, 19th century)

This affable and remarkably zany cast of characters plays upon the festive atmosphere of an annual celebration held to commemorate the birth of the historical Buddha and his first shower by water-bearing dragons. Some of the disciples pictured flaunt pseudo-religious “miracles”: one opens his stomach to reveal the Buddha nature within and another magically creates a temple in mid-air. Other disciples nonchalantly engage on superficially mundane activities that allude to Buddhist conduct, such as mending clothes and reading sutras. A lion, elephant, tiger, dragon, and phoenix are also in attendance; some serve as traditional vehicles of Buddhist deities, whereas others are more generally auspicious. Together, these personalities exude the vitality of a secularized but nonetheless sincere faith.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Asia

Artist: Hua Ziyou
Title: Bathing of the Buddha Festival
Place: China (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1833
Medium: Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
Inscriptions: 道光癸巳浴佛節鄂渚生華子宥敬寫 Festival of the bathing of Buddha in1883, respectfully written by Hua Ziyou of Hubei.
Dimensions: 108.9 × 54.2 cm (42 7/8 × 21 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Joseph Winterbotham
Reference Number: 1954.384
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/80720/manifest.json

Weidner, Marsha, ed., Lee Sherman E. preface Latter Days of the Law. Images of Chinese Buddhism. 850-1850. Exh. Cat., Spencer Museum of Art. the university of Kansas. 1994 cat. no. 58. text. p.17-preface of Sherman E. Lee.

Latter days of the law : Images of Chinese Buddhism. 850-1850. Exhibition; Spencer Museum of Art.
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, August 27 - October 9, 1994; Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, November 30 - January 29, 1995.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.