figure BM-1980-0728.91

Period:Qing dynasty Production date:1690-1750 (circa)
Materials:porcelain, blanc de chine,
Technique:gilded
Subjects:child bodhisattva
Dimensions:Height: 37.50 centimetres Length: 10 centimetres Depth: 9 centimetres

Description:
‘Dehua’ figure of the Madonna and Child. The female figure is standing on the head of an animal or monster and is holding a small boy in her arms. One finger is highlighted with gold. She is modelled after figures of the Chinese Goddess of Mercy, ‘Guanyin’, who is typically depicted on a tiger holding a child. Both mother and child, however, have European features and curly hair, the woman also wears a non-Chinese headdress and the child holds a rosary, so that this sculpture is identified as the Christian Holy Mother, the Virgin Mary carrying the infant Christ, rather than a Buddhist mother goddess.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:Figures called ‘Sancta Marias’ (blessed Marys) are recorded, for example, in the sale list for the cargo of the Nassau, an English ship which returned to England from Amoy (Xiamen) in 1699 (Godden, 1979, pp. 259-60), but Christian ‘Dehua’ figures are very rare. ‘Dehua’ sculptures were shipped to Europe in great quantities but the most popular product of the ‘Dehua’ kilns and possibly its best selling export commodity were figures of Guanyin. Another Dehua Madonna carrying a baby in swaddling clothes is in the Musee Guimet, Paris (mentioned by Donnelly, 1969, p. 195); a third, differently modelled, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Godden, 1979, no. 186). From dated inventories we know that figures of a woman and child, probably representing Guanyin, were also in the Dresden porcelain collection of Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony (1670-1733) (see BM Franks. 947+) and in the smaller collection of William III, King of England (r. 1689-1702) and Queen Mary II (r. 1689 – 1694) at Kensington House, London.