Reading the Unrolled Scroll

Viewing notes

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

This wood-toned bodhisattva sits before a pointed-arch aureole, reading. Crowned and downcast-eyed, he sits with legs pendant, feet resting on small lotuses, and holds an open scroll spread across both hands before him, as if caught at the most absorbing passage. Beaded ornaments fall in tiers across his chest, a jewelled sash girds the waist, and the drapery flows from the shoulders to the edge of the seat, pooling in slow waves before the knees. Behind him the tall aureole gathers to its point, its surface covered with curling clouds and scrolling foliage, ringed by five small seated Buddhas, with a lotus medallion halo glowing softly behind the head. A broad lotus pedestal on a rectangular stand carved with flowing pattern completes the piece. Warm wood with a scholarly air — made for a shrine, a study or a tea room, a companion of cultivated quiet.