Religious Objects in the Maritime Trade: A Study on the Dehua Guanyin Porcelain Statue in the Victoria and Albert Museum

My thesis focuses on a specific Dehua porcelain Guanyin statue in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A 19-1886), a mother-like Guanyin holding a boy-like child in her arms with Buddhist symbols around them. This statue and its variations flooded into Europe in the eighteenth century, arousing discussions about the iconography of Child-giving Guanyin. Their popularity in Europe has been generally attributed to the resemblance to Madonna and Child. This thesis disagrees with the conventional interpretation, and explores Buddhist images in the context of transcultural objects from the 15th to the 18th century. This approach highlights the interactions between material change, religious representations and transcultural objects. Porcelain Guanyin statues worked as mediators between the deity and worshippers. V&A 19-1886 depicts Guanyin of the South Sea holding a child, which represents compassion and nurturing. Such Buddhist images emerged in the late Ming, when the cult of Guanyin...Show moreMy thesis focuses on a specific Dehua porcelain Guanyin statue in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A 19-1886), a mother-like Guanyin holding a boy-like child in her arms with Buddhist symbols around them. This statue and its variations flooded into Europe in the eighteenth century, arousing discussions about the iconography of Child-giving Guanyin. Their popularity in Europe has been generally attributed to the resemblance to Madonna and Child. This thesis disagrees with the conventional interpretation, and explores Buddhist images in the context of transcultural objects from the 15th to the 18th century. This approach highlights the interactions between material change, religious representations and transcultural objects. Porcelain Guanyin statues worked as mediators between the deity and worshippers. V&A 19-1886 depicts Guanyin of the South Sea holding a child, which represents compassion and nurturing. Such Buddhist images emerged in the late Ming, when the cult of Guanyin underwent popularization and secularization, and attracted a universal appeal in the transcultural context. Instead of reducing the Child-giving Guanyin porcelain statues to mere visual parallels with Madonna and Child, this analysis underscores the significance of contextual shifts in transforming religious objects across diverse cultural landscapes, and enriches our understanding of the dynamic process.Show less

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Religious Objects in the Maritime Trade: A Study on the Dehua Guanyin Porcelain Statue in the Victoria and Albert Museum