A LARGE GILT AND POLYCHROME LACQUERED WOOD FIGURE OF A MONK QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

dressed in monk's robes with a kasaya draped over his left shoulder and fastened with a ring and hooks, the garments decorated with applied raised threads to form floral borders and roundels, his shoulders bearing characters for the sun and moon, his expressive  face with a wise and benevolent expression, beneath a barbed crown centered with an image of a buddha flanked by dragons, his hands in dhyanamudra, cradling an orb, seated in dhyanasana, on a horseshoe back chair with a footrest, all supported on a footed platform

Marcel Nies, Antwerp Belgium.
Spinks, London.
Christie's Amsterdam, 21st November 2001, lot 139.

Spink´s, Visions of Perfect Worlds, Catalogue, London, 1999, no. 29.

The figure possibly represents Qingshui zushi, the patriarch of Qingshui, a Chan Buddhist monk from Fujian province during the Northern Song dynasty. He is believed to have saved the town of Anxi from drought, and out of gratitude, temples were erected and images of him were enshrined after his death. He continues to be venerated in Taiwan, and places where there are large numbers of immigrants from Fujian, such as Singapore and Malaysia.

Images of Qingshui zushi are often portrayed dressed as a Buddhist abbott, as in the present lot, and seated in a similar pose.  He has the face of an elderly man, which is sometimes portrayed in black or gold, depending on the color scheme of the image.