The Pipa-Bearing Guardian

Viewing notes

A viewer's written impression — not a buyer review or first-hand record

This standing guardian in warm wood tones wears full armour and cradles an enormous pipa in his arms. His crowned head is framed by ribbons curling up like flames, and his wide, glaring eyes give him a stern, half-angry authority. Scale armour covers him layer over layer, breastplate and war-skirt worked scale by scale like a fish's skin, with sash-ends and long ribbons rolling into waves at his sides. The pipa lies diagonally across his body, its pale golden wood setting off the warm tone of the figure, one hand at the strings and one at the neck, as if about to sound a note. Beneath his feet lies a whole bank of swirling auspicious clouds, and beside him stands a small attendant in a paler tone, face lifted toward the main figure. Ferocity is the surface; the instrument is the heart. He belongs at the entrance of a room or beside a shrine — holding the ground without raising his voice.