A PAINTED WOOD FIGURE OF A LUOHAN

SCULPTURE

Details

A PAINTED WOOD FIGURE OF A LUOHAN
SONG DYNASTY

Shown seated in dhyansana, with left hand resting on his knee and right hand raised and holding an object (now missing), wearing layered robes tied above the waist and draped in loose folds around the body and over the edge of the base, the well-carved face with hollowed eyes and a slightly rounded usnisa, traces of black, red, pink, white and pale green pigment, losses, cracks--24 3/4 in. (63cm.) high

Lot Essay

A painted wood luohan of similar type and size found in 1963 inside a hollow Buddha in Nanhua Temple, Quijiang, Guangdong province, bears an inscription dated to 1047. From the inscriptions on other figures discovered at the same time, it appears that this group of carved wood luohans was carved in various places in Guangzhou and Lianzhou. See Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, Sculpture, vol. 5, no. 44, p.41 and no. 43, p. 40. The first of these figures is also illustrated by Wan-go Weng and Yang Boda, The Palace Museum: Peking, 1982, pl. 144