Early 20th Century Sino Tibetan Carved Altar Screen

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Pieces this densely carved rarely survive with every inch intact. Unfold these three panels and you're reading a full set … Read more Pieces this densely carved rarely survive with every inch intact. Unfold these three panels and you're reading a full set of the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Tibetan Buddhism, the endless knot, the lotus, a stupa-form finial, worked in tight relief alongside repeating columns of carved script that read as devotional text rather than decoration. At the center, a seated deity sits inside a carved flame halo, ringed by a checkerboard of smaller auspicious motifs, the kind of composition a temple workshop would have taken real time over. Above each panel, the cresting is pierced straight through rather than left in shallow relief, foliate scrollwork opening onto a winged figure at the top, so light moves through the carving instead of just sitting on its surface. We come across plenty of carved screens. We don't come across many carved this finely on every single panel. At just over three feet tall, it reads as a tabletop or console piece rather than a full room divider, small enough for a shelf or sideboard and still commanding enough to hold a room's attention. Mount in on your wall as a piece of Art, because this is a piece built to reward that kind of looking.

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