Compassion and Meditation

After its year-long closure, the Museum of East Asian Art is presenting some of the best and most costly items from its collection of Buddhist art.

 The exhibition seeks to present the two concepts of compassion and meditation in the teachings of the ‘Great Vehicle’ (Sanskrit: Mahayana). Here, a central role is played by the Bodhisattvas as enlightened beings who nonetheless have pity on humanity, as well as by meditation, which was widely disseminated by the Zen schools (Chinese: Chan; Jap.: Zen).

Numerous visual depictions have survived in respect of both concepts. This is evidenced not only by the sculptures and paintings of the Bodhisattva Guanyin, famed for his mercifulness and love of humanity, and the help-giving Bodhisattva Jizo, depicted as a wandering monk. These ideas are also illustrated by realistic portrayals of the disciples of the Buddha (Chin.: Luohan, Korean: Rakan; Sanskrit: Arhat) and monks, or the pictorial motifs and inscriptions produced in the context of Zen.

An exhibition of items from the Museum of East Asian Art’s own collections.

Much of the Buddhist collection of the Museum of East Asian Art was purchased by the museum’s founder Adolf Fischer. In accordance with the concept of a ‘world art history’ he demanded that Buddhist art be seen as being of equal value to Christian art. At the time, this attitude was revolutionary. Fischer’s argumentation evidently convinced Cologne City Council, for in 1913 the Museum of East Asian Art opened in the immediate vicinity of the Museum of Art and Craft and the Schnütgen Museum on Hansaring. Even today the equal status of Christian and Buddhist art cannot be taken for granted. Although the Schnütgen Museum is no longer in the immediate vicinity of the Museum of East Asian Art, this exhibition hopes to stimulate a cultural comparison.