Green Tara, Seated in Pose of Royal Ease (Lalitasana), with Lotus Stalks on Right Shoulder and Hands in Gestures of Reasoning (Vitarkamudra) and Gift Conferring (Varadamudra)
Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Yongle reign mark and period (1403–24)
- Medium
- Gilt copper alloy with traces of pigment (lapis lazuli)
- Classification
- Metalwork
- Dimensions
- 21.5 × 13.5 × 12.5 cm (8 1/2 × 5 1/4 × 4 7/8 in.)
- Culture
- China
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Gift of Guy H. Mitchell
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
China's pantheon of Buddhist deities, with their accompanying rituals and artistic styles, burgeoned following its conquest by the Mongols and its absorption into the pan-Asian, multiethnic Yuan empire (1279-1368). From then on, many Chinese rulers and members of elite society, of both native and foreign heritage, became fervent devotees of Tibetan Buddhism. This tradition is also known as Vajrayana (Diamond Path) or Tantric Buddhism. Buddhist images made in China but influenced by Tibetan (as well as Nepalese) iconography and style are termed Sino-Tibetan.
This image depicts one of many emanations of the compassionate deity Tara. An inscription on the top surface of its throne reads "Da Ming Yongle nian zhi" (Bestowed in the Yongle reign of the Great Ming). The Yongle emperor was the third ruler of the Ming dynasty and a great patron of Buddhist art.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
