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Lot Essay
The present bronze is an unusually large and fine example of a luohan (arhat in Sanskrit) sculpture. Originally the term referred to those that had achieved a certain degree of enlightenment, but by the Tang dynasty in China (AD 618-907), luohan were considered the disciples of Buddha Shakyamuni who maintain his teachings until the coming of the Future Buddha, Maitreya. The political strife of the 7th and 8th centuries left many devotees calling for Maitreya’a arrival, and thus elevated the importance of the luohan. That popularity endured for centuries after, even during times of relative peace and prosperity in China.
The translation and introduction of the Nandimitra sutra (Record of the Abiding Dharma Spoken by the Great Arhat Nandimitra) from India to China by the traveling monk Xuanzang (AD 602-664) partially changed the practice of luohan worship; in place of the standard two arhats, they began to be depicted in groups of 16, 18, 100 or 500, with 18 being the most common. Sculptural images of luohan groups were most often carried out in ceramic, as the material was more cost effective for large groups and allowed for better individualized plasticity. Among the most well-known of the ceramic luohan is the group found near Yixian and dated to the Liao Dynasty (AD 907-1125), now distributed in Western museums (for two at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, see D. Leidy, Wisdom Embodied, New York, 2010, pp. 112-13, nos. 23a and 23b). Examples in ceramic dated to the Ming dynasty, and stylistically similar to the present figures, are in the collection of the National Museum of East Asian Art, Berlin (see Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Statues in Overseas Collections, vol. 7, Beijing, 2005, p. 1455) and in the Seattle Art Museum (33.1146).
Known images of luohan in bronze are significantly rarer, although many lesser quality examples exist in iron. An exception is a gilt-bronze figure of a luohan seated on a base, similar in appearance, although smaller in size, in the Victoria & Albert Museum (see G. Béguin, Dieux et demons de l’Himâlaya: Art du Bouddhisme lamaïque, Paris, 1977, p. 108, cat. no. 69). The Victoria & Albert bronze is inscribed on the reverse with “number seven on the east,” likely indicating its orientation within a larger group of luohan. The time and material cost required to cast such a figure would have been astonishing, so a group of sixteen or eighteen would have been an extremely important commission.
Compare with one of the younger arhat of two large bronze luohan figures, dated 15th century, offered in Christie's New York, 15-16 March 2015, lot 903.
The translation and introduction of the Nandimitra sutra (Record of the Abiding Dharma Spoken by the Great Arhat Nandimitra) from India to China by the traveling monk Xuanzang (AD 602-664) partially changed the practice of luohan worship; in place of the standard two arhats, they began to be depicted in groups of 16, 18, 100 or 500, with 18 being the most common. Sculptural images of luohan groups were most often carried out in ceramic, as the material was more cost effective for large groups and allowed for better individualized plasticity. Among the most well-known of the ceramic luohan is the group found near Yixian and dated to the Liao Dynasty (AD 907-1125), now distributed in Western museums (for two at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, see D. Leidy, Wisdom Embodied, New York, 2010, pp. 112-13, nos. 23a and 23b). Examples in ceramic dated to the Ming dynasty, and stylistically similar to the present figures, are in the collection of the National Museum of East Asian Art, Berlin (see Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Statues in Overseas Collections, vol. 7, Beijing, 2005, p. 1455) and in the Seattle Art Museum (33.1146).
Known images of luohan in bronze are significantly rarer, although many lesser quality examples exist in iron. An exception is a gilt-bronze figure of a luohan seated on a base, similar in appearance, although smaller in size, in the Victoria & Albert Museum (see G. Béguin, Dieux et demons de l’Himâlaya: Art du Bouddhisme lamaïque, Paris, 1977, p. 108, cat. no. 69). The Victoria & Albert bronze is inscribed on the reverse with “number seven on the east,” likely indicating its orientation within a larger group of luohan. The time and material cost required to cast such a figure would have been astonishing, so a group of sixteen or eighteen would have been an extremely important commission.
Compare with one of the younger arhat of two large bronze luohan figures, dated 15th century, offered in Christie's New York, 15-16 March 2015, lot 903.