Artwork
Text, Folio 82 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
Text, Folio 82 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra) is an unspecified painting by Unknown. It dates from 14 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
About this work
Overview
The work is a painted folio, identified as the verso of folio 82 from a manuscript of the Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita‑sutra, a Buddhist text known as the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines. Executed on a narrow, light‑brown wooden strip, the piece presents three contiguous blocks of densely arranged script in a minute South‑Asian hand.
Subject & Meaning
The inscribed passages belong to the Prajnaparamita corpus, a collection of teachings on emptiness and the nature of reality central to Mahayana Buddhism. Though the miniature characters are difficult to read without magnification, the content is devotional, intended for study or recitation within a monastic or scholarly context.
Technique & Style
The artist employed a fine brush to render the script in an extremely small, regular hand, allowing maximal text to fit on the limited surface. The wood’s smooth, polished finish suggests preparation with a ground layer, possibly gesso, before the ink or pigment was applied, a common practice for portable sutra scrolls.
History & Provenance
The folio originates from an unidentified workshop, typical of manuscript production in the Indian subcontinent during the late first millennium CE. Its survival on wood rather than paper indicates a durable format for itinerant monks. The piece entered a museum collection through a 20th‑century acquisition, though the exact donor remains unknown.
Context
The Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita was widely copied across South Asia, serving both liturgical and educational purposes. Wooden folios such as this were often bound into larger codices or used as individual teaching aids, reflecting the practical needs of monastic curricula and the transmission of complex doctrinal material.
Artist & collection
Domestic Scene
Giacomo and Cardinal Marco, investing Andrea, Abbot of San Zeno, with his Benefice
The Nymph of Fontainebleau
Portrait of a Woman
Madonna and Child with Saints in the Enclosed Garden
Venus and Minerva
Family Group of Four on Sofa
Wall painting from Room H of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
Text, Folio 128 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
Text, Folio 92 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
Text, Folio 88 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
Text, Folio 77 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
Text, Folio 80 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
Text, Folio 138 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
Text, folio 179 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
Text, Folio 28 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
Text, Folio 84 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
Text, Folio 82 (recto), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)