CHINA, late Qing dynasty, 19th century Large painted wooden statue representing Guanyin (the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara) seated in vajrasana on a large lotus covered with a drape and emerging from the water where a carp is swimming, hands joined in dhyanamudra, wearing an ample robe revealing his upper torso and a five-pointed tiara containing the Amitabha Buddha, two long locks of hair falling over his shoulders, his face serene with half-closed eyes adorned with pupils inlaid in black glass, the wood bare at the back with a square cavity in his back. H. 162 cm LdM Traces of successive polychromy, chips, cracks, accidents and restorations This large statue would have belonged in a temple. Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin in China), even more than the other bodhisattvas, personifies compassion, which perhaps explains the immense and lasting fortune of this divinity in China and throughout the Far East. The lotus serves as a throne for most Buddhas and boddhisattvas: it is a symbol of purification in Buddhism, as it passes through mud and then water to emerge into the open air and sunlight, as can be seen here. The iconography here associating a carp with Guanyin is no doubt an allusion to the legend (published in the 16th century) according to which the third son of the Dragon King (the king of the seas), having taken the form of a carp, was captured by fishermen and saved by Guanyin.