The Armoured Guardian

Viewing notes

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

This polychrome armoured guardian stands upon rolling cloud heads. His face is red, his beard and moustache black, his eyes wide with anger; on his head is a golden crown set with a flaming jewel. He wears fine scale armour, a great golden peony at the centre of his breastplate, beast-head shoulder guards biting their rings — an imposing presence. One arm is raised high with the palm turned outward; around the other a long grey serpent coils in layer upon layer, and that hand grips a long blade still in its scabbard, held across his waist, where a beast-head fitting hangs. Red robes and green sashes stream at his legs in dense folds, and his war boots plant themselves on the clouds. Richly coloured and detailed all over, he belongs at the side of a shrine door or a room's entrance, guarding it — and lending any display an air of resolve.