A gilt-bronze group of Guanyin and Sudhana


Ming DynastySeated in lalitasana on a rocky pedestal with her pendant left leg resting on an extended lotus blossom, the goddess' right hand rests on her raised right knee, the flowing robes incised with floral hems falling in graceful folds around the body, and her young acolyte Sudhana bowing reverently with pressed palms.21.6cm high.
|Provenance: an Australian private collectionA Scottish private collectionThe present depiction of Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion, finely cast seated with head turned slightly toward her acolyte Shancai, was probably derived from a passage in the 'Flower Garland Sutra', which relates the spiritual journey of a youth, Sudhana, who is advised by Manjusri, the bodhisattva of Wisdom, to visit fifty-three different beings in his quest to search for the ultimate truth. Sudhana's encounter with Guanyin on Mount Potalaka became an influential passage in religious art. Stylistically, the facial features and treatment of the veil and robes, falling in deep folds around her body, the deity compares with a gilt-bronze figure of Guanyin, 17th/18th century, illustrated in Chang Foundation, Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Taipei, 1993, pp.108-109, no.47.