Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 6. (Budapest, 1979)
KÁRPÁTI, Andrea: „Blanc de Chine" porcelain in the collection of the Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts
6. KUAN-YINS WITH ALL ATTRIBUTES Her throne is made of rock. It is a reference to Mount Pataloka, where she is supposed to have spent 9 years. The name of this hill is P'u-t'o-lo-ka in Ghinese, and it is situated on an island of the same name near Te-hua. Today more than a hundred monasteries are existing on the island. The myth of the god observing the world from the top of a hill originates in the translation of Avalokiteshvara's name: „The Lord, looking down". Thus Kuan-yin is seated on a rock throne, washed around by the waves of the sea. (The waving sea refers to one of her embodiments, „Protector of the seamen", Kuo-hai.). Two serpents squirn in the waves and a lotus flower rises from among them towards the throne. On either side of the goddess there is a log, one of them bearing the „sutra", and the other the „ping", the vase of heavenly dew. Both the „sutra" and the „ping" belong to the „pa pao", the „eight precious things". On the lap of the goddess there is the attribute of the „Sung-tzu-role", the child. Standing in front of the log mounts are two figures, wich belong to none of the three embodiments mentioned above. One of them is a boy putting his palms together, while the other one is most often a girl, holding a round object in her hand. These attending figures come from the representation of Chinese goddess, Miao Shu (or Miao Shan), who had been identified with Kuan-yin in China. To complete the list of attributes of our figure, the standard elements of the representation of the goddess have to be mentioned: the facial expression of meditation, the holy dot, the veil of compassion, the diadem with the Buddha-figure, and the rosary. The master chooses the elements for his statuette from this conventional set, and as the principle of arrangement: symmetry is also given, his creative talent is granted hardly any chance. Among these compositions a „work of quality" is a
