The wife of the Buddha implores him for their son's inheritance

Siamese artists of the nineteenth century often depicted certain common Buddhist scenes, but in very different ways. This painting and 2006.27.70 show the dissimilarities between two representations of the same scene.

Here the palace structure within which the Buddha sits has been shifted to one side to allow space to show the Buddha's former wife a second time, entering. Other differences from 2006.27.70 abound: The palace is now a concoction of Chinese and perhaps Western elements as well as Thai; several figures with no obvious role in the sacred narrative, including a Chinese-looking man with a wispy beard and a queue, can be seen in the middle ground; and the background, instead of being shown as an unspecific, flat backdrop, now opens out into a craggy landscape. Where the artist of 2006.27.70 emphasizes still, formal qualities, the artist of this painting emphasizes bustling activity in something more like everyday time and space.