A Louis XV ormolu-mounted Dehua blanc de Chine figure of Guanyin with a meiping. 17th century
Impressed seal mark: An Zhi
The Bodhisattva of Compassion seated in in a relaxed rajalilasana posture (royal ease) with her leg raised on a pitted rock pedestal with one hand elegantly resting on her raised right knee and the left hand gently holding a scroll titled "Quanshan jing" (Sutra Urging Kindness), to her left a meiping vase for holy water on a rock ledge. With finely incised facial features and strands of hair, the Bodhisattva wears a long robe falling in graceful folds around the body and beaded necklaces around her neck, her hair pinned up in a chignon. All covered with a bluish creamy white glaze. On a fire gilt ormolu base, sand cast, in the shape of a rock, base open. The mount attributed to Paris, second quarter 18th century.
Height 38 cm.
The figure holds a sutra scroll titled Quanshan jing (Sutra Urging Kindness). It is a Buddhist text advocating kind and virtuous behavior and can the oldest copy of it can be dated back to CE 704 of the Tang dynasty. The great number of extant copies of this sutra, amounting to almost one hundred, suggests widespread use for accumulating merit and protecting oneself or other people from evils. In the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes (Qian fó dòng) , a copy of this scripture was found made by the monk Baoxuan in CE 938.
Guanyin, who is the Chinese variant of the bodhisattva known in India as Avalokitesvara ("the one who perceives the world's lamentations"), is worshipped as the bodhisattva of mercy and compassion and one of the most popular deities in the pantheon of the Mahayana Buddhism.
Provenance
Formerly private collection, Belgium.
Literature
Compare a similar gold bronze base in: Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinesisches und japanisches Porzellan in europäischen Fassungen, ill. 282 and 386 and a similar Guanyin figure in: Rose Kerr and John Ayers, Blanc de Chine, Porcelain from Dehua, no. 1.