Page 43 - Art D'Asie Paris

In Pure Land Buddhism 淨土宗 Guanyin is identifed fg. 2 - Interior of Roger Vivier's home in Connaissance des
Arts, Les grandes collections, Art ancien avec Art nouveau [...],
as one of the counsellor-emissaries of the Buddha Paris, Juillet-Août 1968, n° 197-198, pp. 88-94.
Amitabha – the Buddha who presides over the Pure Land
or Western Paradise, and in a second translation of the fg. 3 - Encyclopaedia Universalis, Encyclopaedia Universalis
three sutras that comprise the Pure Land Sutra, Guanyin France S.A, Paris, 1968, Volume 5, pl. VI.
is identifed as the successor to Amitabha. The same
translation notes that any virtuous man or woman who
fnds themselves in trouble may entrust themselves to the
Bodhisattvas Avalokitesvara or Mathasthamapraptra,
and they will be saved. Representations of Guanyin,
therefore, may sometimes be identifed by a small fgure
of Amitabha at the front of the diadem.

This bodhisattva is shown in simple, but princely robes.
The lower body and legs are clothed in a paridhana
or long dhoti, which falls in elegant, natural, folds and
conforms to the shape of the lower legs of the fgure.
His chest is bare, but a long sinuous scarf crosses it
obliquely, is tied on the left shoulder, and is draped
over the right arm. The bodhisattva wears jewellery
appropriate to his princely rank in the form of a necklace,
bracelets, and a diadem in his hair. Typically for fgures
of this period, the hair is looped around the ears and
then swept up into a chignon. Like a number of other
surviving wooden bodhisattva fgures of this date there
are relief designs on the paridhana at the knees of the
fgure and along the edges of the cloth. It must be born
in mind that fgures such as this one would have been in
a temple for centuries and at intervals it would have been
redecorated. Therefore, not only are there several layers
of pigment, but these relief designs, which may have
been added in the Ming dynasty.

A slightly larger Northern Song Guanyin sculpture in this
pose, although seated on a lotus throne, dated to the
third year of Yuanfeng (AD 1079), is in the Chongqing
temple in Shanxi province (illustrated in Zhongguo
meishu quanji, diaosu bian, 5, Wudai Song diaosu, Beijing,
1988, p. 65, no. 64. Such sculptures, including the
current example are particularly associated with North
China, especially Shanxi province in the period 10th-14th
century, due to the pre-eminent centres of Buddhism at
Taiyuan and Wutaishan. Another similar fgure, dated c.
AD 1025, is in the Honolulu Academy of Arts. A slightly
smaller Guanyin in this pose, dated c. AD 1200, is in the
collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
and is discussed at length by J. Larson and R. Kerr in
Guanyin – A Masterpiece Revealed, London, 1985. A
slightly smaller fgure of Guanyin in similar pose, dated
c. AD 1250, is in the collection of Princeton University,
where the curators note that the relief decoration on
the skirt and scarves of the fgure was probably added
during the Ming dynasty. A slightly larger Song sculpture
of Guanyin in this pose is also in the collection of the
British Museum, London (see Buddhism: Art and Faith,
London, 1985, no. 296), while a slightly smaller Northern
Song fgure of the bodhisattva Manjusri in a similar
pose, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum
(see Wisdom Embodied – Chinese Buddhist and Daoist
Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
2010, p. 180, no. A44).

41