Portrait of the First Mother Goddess of Heaven – Divine Portraits Project x Lunae Lumen

In celebration of the New Moon day of the Fifth month (Vietnamese Lunar calendar), we would like to reveal the very first painting in our project, Divine Portraits. This artwork portrays the First Mother Goddess of Heaven. Painted by artist Lunae Lumen, the portrait is inspired by the Art-Nouveau style combined with other distinguished characteristics of Vietnamese folk paintings. The theme color is red as it is the symbolic color of the Heaven Palace.

Since the First Mother Goddess governs the Heaven Palace [Thiên Phủ], the painting contains several celestial symbols. On her sides are the emblems of the golden Sun and the silver Moon. At the head of the phoenix-feathered hand fan she is holding is the Big Dipper asterism. The fan has the traditional shape of a bodhi leaf. She is sitting on the five-colored cloud, in Hàng Trống traditional painting style.

For the wooden curtain-like frame above her head, which is called “cửa võng”, there is a carved pair of dragons facing towards the Wheel of Dharma, one of the eight auspicious objects of Buddhism. The wheel is made from red pearls, also one of seven Buddhist treasures. On the sides of the cửa võng is a pair of cranes holding a lotus in each mouth. We got the inspiration for the form of the cửa võng from an old photograph of an ancient altar, which we will share in the comment section.

Her costumes, in the Lê dynasty’s style, include three layers. The innermost is Giao Lĩnh (crossed-collared robe). The middle layer is Viên Lĩnh (round-collared robe) and Thường wrapping skirt tightened with yellow Thao silk tassel ropes. The outermost layer is Đối Khâm (parallel-collared robe) with the shoulder section covered by a golden lace of lotus patterns.

Her golden crown is inspired by an ancient Vietnamese statue (photograph posted in the comment section), with a pair of red Endless Knots (another one of the eight Buddhist auspicious symbols) on two fringes.

The inspiration for the costumes is mainly from the book Weaving A Realm by Vietnam Centre.