A Rare Lacquered Wood Figure of a Luohan

SONG DYNASTY

Details

A Rare Lacquered Wood Figure of a Luohan
Song dynasty
Well carved as a bald older monk standing on a separate lotus base with left arm held across the front of his body, wearing gracefully draped priests' robes, the tendons of his neck well defined and his face carved with sunken cheeks and prominent cheekbones, the eyes seemingly closed below long arched brows and the mouth in a slight smile, traces of red lacquer
225/8in. (57.5cm.) high

Lot Essay

This figure very likely had both hands clasped in front of the chest, like the luohan with similar features and long eyebrows shown in a procession of luohan carved in a wall mural in the Longmen caves, and dated to the Tang dynasty, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji; Diaosu bian; Longmen shiku diaoke (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts; Sculpture; Sculpture from the Longmen Caves), Shanghai, 1988, vol. 11, p. 195. The present figure illustrates how Song dynasty figures still retained the same sense of individuality and vitality as the earlier Tang figures.

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