Many-Armed Radiance

Viewing notes

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

This polychrome group centres on a many-armed seated bodhisattva in full lotus on an enormous lotus flower, a small seated figure attending at the side of the throne. Crowned in gold with a composed face, the bodhisattva spreads more than a dozen arms in tiers at her sides, each holding an implement that can be picked out one by one — sword, axe, long staff, rosary, fruit branch, pure vase, dharma wheel, conch — while the central hands are pressed together and a lower pair rests in the meditation seal. Behind her stands a round aureole ringed by a wreath of gold-red flames. The colours are rich: a green shawl traced in gold, an orange-red patterned skirt, lotus petals in blue-green and gold, and a multi-tiered hexagonal base where red, blue and gold alternate in geometric and scrolling designs. Vivid and solemn at once, it seizes the eye first by colour. It belongs at the principal position of a shrine, or as the visual centre of a large interior — a presence that fills its space.