Standing Guanyin Holding a Lotus Flower
Category
Textiles
Date
c. 1670 - 1899
Materials
Paint, Silk, Paper
Measurements
1780 mm (H)810 mm (W)
Order this imageCollection
Ham House, Surrey
NT 1139525
Summary
Hanging scroll, black ink and pigments on silk, Standing Guanyin Holding a Lotus Flower, Chinese, second half of the seventeenth century or later. The full-length figure of Guanyin is standing on a lotus leaf and holds a lotus flower. He is wearing long flowing robes in pink, blue, red and yellow, has an elaborate necklace over his chest, his long hair is divided into strands and he is wearing a crown, with a halo behind, and he is standing in front of a carved stone balustrade. The hanging scroll is edged with a straight line in black ink without further mounts, it is backed with paper and has wooden rollers at top and bottom painted black and gold.
Full description
Guanyin is a popular figure of worship in various forms of Buddhism. Originally known in India as Avalokitshvara, he is a bodhisattva or an enlightened being who helps others on the path to salvation. When Buddhism was introduced to China between the third and sixth centuries CE, Avalokitshvara became known there as Guanyin and came to be depicted with more feminine characteristics. Guanyin is seen and worshipped as the personification of compassion. This relatively humble painting appears to have been made as a devotional image for the Chinese market. It may originally have been part of a larger set of paintings showing the 33 different manifestations of this bodhisattva.