Part of a Buddhistic Sutra

Art Historical Context

This exquisite handscroll fragment, titled *Part of a Buddhistic Sutra* and dated 797, offers a rare glimpse into Tang dynasty China (618–907), a age of artistic and cultural flourishing. Created by an unidentified artist using ink and color on paper it measures 11½ x 52½ inches and belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of's Asian Art collection, acquired through the Fletcher Fund in 7. As a painted sutra—a Buddhist scripture—this work blends sacred text with illustrations of human figures and Buddha, embodying the era's deep devotion to Buddhism, which had arrived in China centuries earlier via ...