A gilt-bronze seated figure of the Daoist 'Goddess of the Morning Clouds', Bixia Yuanjun


Ming DynastyThe female deity portrayed with a benevolent face framed by an elaborate headdress of flames enclosing five protruding phoenixes, heavily cast seated with hands clasping a hu tablet, wearing a finely-layered robe adorned with a ruyi-shaped ornament around her chest.23cm (9in) high.
|明 銅鎏金碧霞元君坐像Provenance: an English private collection來源： 英國私人收藏The deity can be identified as Bixia Yuanjun, also known as the Sovereign of the Clouds of Dawn or the Goddess of the Morning Clouds, by the representation of the five phoenixes in the headdress. The goddess was the daughter of the male god of Mount Tai, the easternmost of the Five Sacred Mountains in Shandong Province, where the Palace of the Clouds of Dawn, Bixia Gong, was built at the top of the mountain as her shrine during the Ming dynasty. Figures of Bixia Yuanjun are a personification of the yin force and made for use on Daoist altars.See a larger bronze figure of Bixia Yuanjun, 15th century, in the Art Institute of Chicago, illustrated by S.Little and K.Schipper, Taoism and the Arts of China, California, 2000, p.278, no.95; and see also a smaller gilt-bronze figure of Bixia Yuanjun, Ming dynasty, in the British Museum, London (acc.no.1908,0420.6).Compare with a related large gilt-lacquered bronze figure of Bixia Yuanjun, late Ming dynasty, which was sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 29 May 2018, lot 10.