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

23.   Headstone with Key-hole Opening
Yuan dynasty (1272—1368)
Quanzhou Maritime Museum
Ricci 23  KP 069 Z17

This is one of the most interesting carvings in the collection of the Quanzhou Maritime Museum. The function or symbolic import of the key-hole opening is unknown. The stone shows a figure with double wings seated on a cloud design holding a cross on a lotus flower. The pointed crown, side-locks and cloud shoulders are similar to those on other figures in the collection.

This seated figure may owe something to the depiction of a Buddha or Bodhisattva. In fact, one of the defining aspects of the iconography of the Quanzhou tombstones appears to be the co-mingling of religious imagery: much of the art on these stones is Buddhist in inspiration but Christian in orientation.