A GILT-LACQUERED BRONZE FIGURE OF THE DAOIST GODDESS OF EYESIGHT, YANGUANG NIANGNIANG

Estimated Value:

15.000 € - 25.000 €

Schätzpreis:

33.000 €

Description:

China, 17th c.
H. 50 cm
Seated in European fashion on a throne with both shoed feet resting on a four-feet base, both hands raised in front of her chest covered with a ceremonial textile supporting a disc with an eye, wearing various garments including a wide-sleeved mantle falling down in wide pleats along her body and legs, secured with a belt, her face displaying a serene expression with downcast eyes below arched eyebrows running into the nose-bridge, smiling lips, her hair combed backwards in tresses and secured with an elaborate crown ornamented with five phoenixes.
From a German private collection, acquired at Lempertz, Cologne, 11.06.2010, lot 55
The present figure can be identified by the representation of the three phoenixes and her typical attibute, the disc with an eye in the headdress as Yanguang Niangniang, who is believed to cure blindness and other ailments related to vision. She is often depicted as an attendant goddes of the Daoist goddess Bixia Yuanjun, the Sovereign of the Clouds of Dawn or the Goddess of the Morning Clouds, who is worshipped still today in a shrine on Mount Tai among other attendant goddesses including Yanguang Niangniang. She became an important deity in China, particularly in the north during the Ming and Qing dynasties. - Wear and slightly chipped, small repairs

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