Antique Guanyin in “Lalitsana” Royal Ease, China, (16910)

Description

During the Ming and Qing, artists created small icons of Guanyin and other deities for private home altars, local temples and shrines. Sanctioned images and those for wealthier devotees were created in porcelain, jade, bronze and ivory, those for Popular Folk Religion and poorer devotees those of few means were made from soft stone and wood. Although a Buddhist deity, Guanyin was embraced in Taoism and Popular Folk Religion. Although she had 33 manifestations, during the Ming and Qing one of the most popular was “white robed” Guanyin as a simple image her head covered in a hood-like garment

Here, she is in lalitsana, the Pose of Royal Ease as a regal personage who presides over the material and spiritual world. Her hands are in the Taoist karana mudra to expel negativities. Finely carved, it is simple yet detailed with beautiful cloth folds as she sits on a lotus atop a low, footed pedestal. The back cavity indicates it was consecrated.  Mounted on a frosted acrylic stand.