Focus on Paradise of Maitreya and explore the Dating.
While The Paradise of Maitreya arrived in the ROM in 1933, it wasn't until 1940 when Bishop William C. White became the first to propose a date for the painting. A team of students commissioned by White discovered the painting appeared to bear an inscription dictating it was completed on the 14th day of the mid-autumn moon of qingshen. White believed this gave an age that was too young for the painting and that his students had therefore interpreted the inscription incorrectly. Instead, he believed the inscription read the painting was completed in wuzu, not qingshen, which he claimed would date it to be from 1238.Ludwig Bachhofer later researched the painting and found an additional inscription quoting “da Yuan guo” (the great Yuan state). As this title was not used in Yuan until 1271, it made the painting's date of 1238 inaccurate. He agreed that the painting bore the inscription wuzu, not qingshen, however, as these characters were reused on a 60-year cycle, he instead believed the term wuzu was referring to the year 1298.
Maitreya