Statue of Donator

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Statue of Supporter is one of statues in Grotto No.65 of Maiji Mountain Grottoes, which proves the down-to-earth feature of the Song Dynasty Art. Without colorful painting, it reveals the simple original appearance of clay background. But it still vividly portrays a woman true to life. Statue of Supporter shows an ordinary woman, which is 2.1 meters high with slender body, clear facial features, kind character and distinct worldly feature. The decent clothes introduce the customs of the women of Qinlong Region in the Song Dynasty. The elegant postures radiate the typical oriental charms.

Head

A beautiful bun is combed on the head of supporter who also wears wonderful jewelry. She features beautiful and slim face, plump cheek, elastic skin, clear facial features and slender eyebrows. “Phoenix-shaped eyes” are raised to reveal brilliance and serious emotion. Nosewing is upright. Her lip is plump. She buttons her lip and corners of mouth reveal reservedness.

Maiji Mountain Grottoes

Maiji Mountain is located at 30 km away from the southeast Tianshui, Gansu, which is named after the peak looking like grain stack in rural areas. Maiji Mountain were chiseled in the Houqin Dynasty. There are 194 grottoes up to now, where 7,200 statues dating back from the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Qing Dynasty and 900-sqm murals are kept. Most of statues are clay sculptures.

Grotto Statues of the Song Dynasty

In the Song Dynasty, grotto statues declined, which were only built at large scale in few regions. They were mainly distributed in the north Shaanxi, Dazu and Anle in Sichuan, Hangzhou in Zhejiang. Due to escape from wars and economic prosperity, grotto statues of the Song Dynasty in Sichuan have representativeness in terms of scale and artistic quality.

Donators

Donators refer to the persons who do nated money for construction of statues, who not only included emperors, kings, generals and ministers, but also ordinary people. In this way, they expressed their faith in Buddhism and expected to enjoy the happiness in this life or other world. Images of some people were carved or painted in front of Buddha alters or on both sides of caves and hall gates.