A FINE CAST-IRON HEAD OF A LUOHAN

Details

A FINE CAST-IRON HEAD OF A LUOHAN
13TH TO 15TH CENTURY

The well-modeled youthful head cast with an extremely serene expression, with small pursed lips, small nose and half-open eyes, the forehead centered by an urna, the top of the head smoothly finished, with cast marks visible across the top of head, around the long pendulous ears and on the neck, with attractive patina
15¾in. (40cm.) high, wood stand

Lot Essay

For a bronze luohan with a very similar head dated to the 9th year of Zhengtong (1444) in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Zhongguo Lidai Jinian Foxiang Tidian (Illustrated Chinese Buddha Images Through the Ages), Beijing, 1995, p. 417, no. 321

Compare the two Song dynasty cast-iron figures of luohan, with rather more furrowed brows and pronounced cheekbones, both in the Shanxi Provincial Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji; Diaosu; Wudai Song Diaosu, (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts, Sculpture, Five Dynasties and Song), vol. 5, Beijing, 1988, pp. 78-79, no. 75 and 76