The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c12.60

c12.60

II. — Statuette of painted porcelain, belonging to the collection of Mr. Henry H. Gerry; it appeared in the Exhibition of Buddhist Art at the Musée Cernuschi in 1913. In the Catalogue we read: « No. 132. China. Ceramics. Kuan-yin with the child, standing on the tao-tié. China ware decorated with coral red. ». Her polychromy, the sveltness of her proportions, the adorable awkwardness with which she holds the child standing on her left hand, everything, even the grinning monster which she treads under her feet, combines to give her, in spite of her Chinese costume, the bearing of a « primitive » Virgin, and to win for her the keen appreciation of amateurs.