18th C. Chinese Gilt Wood Fertility God Niangniang

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Fine Antiquities, Asian, Ethno, Fine Art

By Artemis Fine Arts

May 1, 2025

Set Reminder 2025-05-01 10:00:00 2025-05-01 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Fine Antiquities, Asian, Ethno, Fine Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/fine-antiquities-asian-ethno-fine-art-19334
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• Lot Description

  East Asia, China, Qing Dynasty, ca. 18th century CE. A striking, gilt and painted woodcarving portraying Niangniang, the revered Taoist Deity of fertility, known as "The Maiden Who Brings Children" (often distinguished from Songzi Guanyin). This fine provincial piece depicts her seated with serene grace on a backless throne, its footrest adorned with carvings. Her refined features include a delicate short nose, pursed lips, and lotus-shaped eyes framed by pendulous ears, symbols of her enlightenment. She gazes gently upon three small children seeking her protection: a boy nestled in her lap, and a boy and girl at her knees reaching out to her. Represented as an empress, akin to Xiwangmu and Mazu, her hair is styled in a topknot. Her elaborate attire, befitting a Taoist deity, features a high-collared, flowing gilt robe with intricate designs, cinched at the waist with a sash and embellished with two stylized flowers. The consecrated cavity in its back suggests it once graced a family altar or temple shrine. Size: 9.6" L x 16.1" W x 42.3" H (24.4 cm x 40.9 cm x 107.4 cm)
  
  Niangniang, often called "The Maiden Who Brings Children," is a significant Taoist deity associated with fertility and the protection of mothers and children. While sometimes confused with the Buddhist figure Songzi Guanyin, Niangniang holds a distinct place within the Taoist pantheon, often depicted as an empress-like figure adorned in elaborate robes, symbolizing her divine status. Her serene gaze typically falls upon children, whom she cradles or watches over protectively, embodying compassion and reassurance for families seeking her blessings for conception, safe childbirth, and the well-being of their offspring. Revered on home and temple altars, Niangniang embodies the Taoist emphasis on harmony and the continuation of life.
  
  The identification of individual Chinese religious statuary absent contextual information presents a considerable challenge due to the syncretic nature of Chinese religious beliefs, wherein various faiths ascribe analogous roles to deities, particularly female figures associated with fecundity, such as Guanyin and Mazu, a concept deeply rooted in Confucian familial ideology. The present large-scale sculpture evinces an amalgamation of Buddhist and Popular Religious elements, albeit with a discernible Taoist emphasis. This confluence is attributable to the concurrent historical development and subsequent intermingling of China's four principal religious philosophies: Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Popular Religion (the latter three being indigenous). This pervasive cultural exchange facilitated the assimilation of iconographic and theological attributes across traditions, as exemplified by this refined female deity who manifests influences from all four religious spheres, most notably bearing resemblance to the Buddhist Child-Bearing Guanyin. Consequently, it is posited that this image represents a Taoist divinity, potentially Yunxiao Niang Niang, whose visual representation has been informed by Buddhist and popular religious iconography. Such integration is characteristic of Taoism, a complex philosophical and religious system incorporating proto-scientific and magical elements with a focus on spiritual transcendence. Moreover, many deities within the Taoist and Popular Religious pantheons originated as historical individuals credited with miraculous deeds, who may have already garnered veneration among adherents of Buddhism or Confucianism prior to their formal enshrinement within temples.
  
  Historically, carved figural statues held profound cultural and religious significance in China, serving not merely as decoration but as vital conduits for spiritual inspiration, solace, and ancestral veneration. These sacred objects populated homes, clan halls, temples, and public spaces, where altars and shrines honored familial ancestors and a pantheon of deities. The size and opulence of these dedicated spaces reflected a family's standing, with even modest homes featuring altars for expressing Confucian piety through ancestor worship. Wealthier families often dedicated entire rooms to elaborate shrines, housing images and ancestor tablets – inscribed placards acting as spiritual seats for the deceased, sometimes even found in temple halls where monks offered prayers for their well-being in the afterlife.
  
  Central to imbuing these carvings with spiritual potency was the "eye opening ceremony," a consecration ritual performed by a senior priest or monk. This process, involving practices like dotting the eyes with cinnabar, pricking them, or anointing them with liquids, was believed to awaken the statue's senses, enabling it to perceive and respond to devotees' prayers. Before this ritual, a cavity carved into the statue's back was filled with sacred documents, prayers, and symbolic items representing inner organs, then sealed. The completed, veiled statue was then solemnly carried to the temple for the complex consecration, a communal event believed to imbue the inert carving with life force (chi or qi) and invite the deity's spirit to reside within. This animated state was believed to persist as long as the cavity remained sealed, making intact statues with their original contents exceptionally rare and deserving of continued reverence.
  
  Provenance: private Los Angeles, California, USA collection, acquired from 1990 - 2005
  
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  #193608

  Condition

  One hand of girl child and cover of bung or back cavity are missing. Hands and heads of children have been professionally reattached, repaired, and restored in areas. Repainting to parts of goddess and children. Chipping with loss to top of top bun. Some stable fissures to wood, as well as nicks and abrasions commensurate with age. Otherwise, nice presentation with good remaining detail and liberal pigments and gilding. Light patina throughout.

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