Watermoon Guanyin. Devotional Image from a Temple, China, 17th/18th ct., hanging scroll, 188 x 109 cm, ink and colors on silk. Inscription in the lower right: "Donated by Zhenxiang fokong Zhang Feng (?-1661)." Inscription on the title slap at the outside of the scroll: "Painting donated by Zhang Feng to a Buddhist tempel. In mid autumn in the year 1993 I came through the old town of Pingyao in Shanxi. In an old shop by the city wall I bought some damaged Buddhist paintings. This Watermoon Guanyin is the most exquisite of them. Noted by Yongning." Zhang Feng, style name Zhenxiang fokong ("True scent Buddhist heaven"), was a noted painter from Nanking. After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1644 he became a Buddhist and lived in retirement. He did some paintings in an elaborate, meticulous style, others are sketchy compositions in the xieyi style with only a few brushstrokes. He also painted figures. The signature on his preserved paintings looks different from the one on this scroll which is a donation inscription in a very formal and stiff regular script. The iconographic type of the so called Watermoon Guanyin (shui yue Guanyi) developed in the Tang dynasty (618-907) and shows the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara with the Buddha Amitabha in his headgear sitting on a rock above the water with the full moon behind him. The moon is depicted in the extraordinary large nimbus of the Bodhisattva. This interesting painting is executed carefully with bright colors and rich details. The face of the deity shows a solemn severity. The silk is old and of quite a good quality - Property from a French private collection, acquired at Christie's, 14 May 2013 - Damages due to age.