Lotus Bearer on the Blue Lion

Viewing notes

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

This polychrome bodhisattva sits serenely astride a blue lion. Crowned in gold, eyes lowered, he holds a pale pink lotus up beside his shoulder with one hand while the other rests before his knee, one foot set on a small lotus pedestal at the lion's side. Behind him spreads a great pointed aureole in gold and crimson, dense with scrolling foliage and rimmed with long fine rays. His robes weave vermilion, deep blue and gilt patterning, beaded ornaments across the chest. The lion is a saturated blue, its golden mane coiling in thick curls, jaws open and eyes wide, its tail-tip rising in a flame-like curl — fierce yet obedient. Below, layered clouds carry a dark high plinth carved with gilt scrollwork and painted floral bands. Stillness above, power below: a piece for enshrinement in a shrine, or for the principal place in a hall, where it settles the whole room with its gravity.