Home > Resources > On-line Exhibits-The Lotus and The Cross

14.   Tomb Marker with Flying Figures
Yuan dynasty (1272—1368)
Quanzhou Maritime Museum.
Ricci 14   KP 010 Z12

This top stone panel was unearthed in 1946 and appears to be a section of a sarcophagus. It is one of the best preserved and clearly defined of the relief sculptures so far discovered at Quanzhou. The panel depicts two flying figures holding a stand which supports a cross on a lotus flower.

The motif of two angels holding a garland or rounded enclosing a cross or the monogram of Christ is known in Christian art from the fourth and fifth centuries onwards. The use of a stand to support the cross on a lotus flower instead of a roundel enclosing the cross is a significant development. The two figures are dressed in flowing draperies with billowing scarves and trailing ribbons, reminiscent of Apsaras or flying attendants in Buddhist iconography. Both figures wear decorated crowns and have long side locks.

The bottom panel is a copy of the original now held in the Anthropological Museum at Xiamen University, Fujian.