Very rare Sino-Portuguese statuette of the Our Lady of Rosary, caring Baby Jesus on her arms, whose carving was ingeniously adapted to the gentle curving shape of the ivory tusk and whose Christian European iconography clearly alludes to the imagery of the Chinese goddess Kuan-Yin. The sculpture of particular elegance and unquestionable artistic achievement, its verticality can be interpreted as a reference to its divinity and as an expression of the mysticism and spirituality so characteristic of Sino-Portuguese Christian art.

The face is oval, with large semi-opened almond-shaped eyes, the nose protruding with clearly defined nostrils. The neck is long and the ears symmetrical with enlarged lobes that overlap the long curly hair. The hands are defined by elegant, long spindle-like fingers. The Virgin displays a “Chinese” carving Baby on her arms and a rosary on the right arm.

The long slightly tufted round collared tunic is of a simple unassuming design and wrapped by a long cloak that covers the Virgin’s head and ties to her arms. The European inspired angular folds of the cloak are fluid and austere, of a sinuous style characteristic of traditional Chinese religious figures.

The sculpture has a well carved old restoration on exotic clear wood on the basis

Chinese Christian imagery remained true to European and Indo-Portuguese prototypes albeit with a specific technical character on the levels of carving quality and detailed facial expressions clearly adapted to Chinese anatomy. This symbiosis grew so effectively that Christian Art in China became thoroughly permeable to Chinese symbology.

Sino-Portuguese images are rare and those of a quality as high as this particular piece, even rarer. For its quality, it rates as an excellent example of delicate and precise aesthetic treatment, a model for candour and beauty that can be safely rated as a masterpiece of 17th-century Sino-Portuguese sculpture.