Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
This bronze statue of Li Tieguai shows him dressed as a beggar in a tattered robe, holding a crutch in his right and a ball of medicine in his left hand. Li Tieguai is the patron saint for physicians and legend says that he dispenses pills from the gourd for the sick. He wears a belt of leaves and another gourd hangs from his waist. His head is crowned with what appears to be a metal ring, signifying his immortal status. Four incised characters in seal script on the back of the figure reads “made by Su Wennan (蘇文南製).”
Inscriptions
蘇文南製 (Su Wennan Zhi )
Provenance
?–1973: (Bluett & Sons, London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1973–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-April 10, 1988). Escaping to a Better World: Eccentrics and Immortals in Chinese Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 13-November 6, 2022).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Su Wennan (Chinese)
- Date
- 1500s
- Medium
- bronze
- Dimensions
- Overall: 41.8 cm (16 7/16 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Department
- Chinese Art
- Credit line
- Cornelia Blakemore Warner Fund
- Accession no.
- 1973.158
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00010768
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