Details
A RARE GILT-BRONZE LUOHAN
13TH/14TH CENTURY

Cast standing with both hands clasped in front of the chest, garbed in a double monastic robes with wide sleeves falling in naturalistic folds, the full face with a shaven head, the eyes downcast under slightly arched brows, attribute missing
17 in. (43.1 cm.) high

Lot Essay

Compare the similarity of facial features with a Northern Song painted wood Luohan, found inside a hollow Buddha in Nanhua Temple, Qujiang, Guangdong province, inscribed with a date A.D. 1047, illustrated by Wan-go Weng and Yang Boda, Treasures of the Forbidden City, The Palace Museum, 1982, p. 247, no. 144.

Cf. also a Northern Song dynasty stone carving of luohan discovered in 1980 at the Boshan Temple site, Fu county, Shaanxi province, now in the Shaanxi History Museum, included in the exhibition, China 5000 Years, Guggenheim Museum, 1998, illustrated in the Catalogue, nos. 177. Luohans, or arharts, were originally worshiped as saints of the Hinayana pantheon; and by 5th century they were incorporated into Mahayana Buddhism as disciples of Buddha.

(US$50,000-80,000)

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