Description

觀音頭上戴着鑲有佛像的寶冠. 構圖細緻而且詳盡, 瓔珞, 臂釧, 披臂等一應俱全. 右手施無畏印, 左手持蓮花蕾; 站立蓮瓣坐上, 慈悲安祥.

這是古代的蹙金繡工的作品. 就是把綫擠在一起的滿繡, 經常以金綫盤圈而构成一個圖案,故又名盤金繡. 這種盤圈而成的圖案加以金色反光,遠看不太清楚,近看卻細緻生動.

這種刺繡以它的金綫最為特出, 不單是金和絲的原材名貴, 制作金綫的工序猶為複雜, 技術考究而且步驟費時.

The design is authentic and attending to details. The head dress, arm bands, gesture of the fingers are evidenced as one examines it carefully.

One hand is in the abhaya mudra (sign of fearlessness), The other is holding a lotus flower bud. It is standing on a lotus pedestal, appeared to be graceful and peaceful.

The stitch work is complicated, involving multiple materials and technics. One stands out most is the use of gold gilt-wrapped threads. This involves the use of expensive material, complicated and time-consuming methods, just to prepare the threads.

The way it illustrated is quite interesting. It did not use colour to outline the body features. Instead, it used the flows of the threads to indicate the fingers or the face features. For this reason, looking at it in a distance is not so effective as close-ups. However, we can appreciate the painstaking efforts to finish the work.

Circa 10th century.