A Chinese white porcelain (blanc de Chine) figure group. Guanyin is seated with a child on a rocky throne, with a dragon rising from waves below, and flanked on either side by her acolytes, Shancai and Longnü. Above them are a bird and a flask of balm. Guanyin wears long robes and, on her hair, a diadem surmounted by a mantle that falls to the shoulders; on her chest, a necklace. On her right knee sits the infant holding a lotus stem; the upper part of his body is separately moulded and applied. The model is thinly potted and unglazed inside.

Guanyin the Merciful, the protector of women and bringer of children, is perhaps the most popular of all deities represented in Chinese sculpture. From the Song dynasty (960–1279) onwards, showing predominantly female characteristics, her image derives from that of the Bodhisattva (enlightened being) Avalokiteévara.

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume I.