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Lot Essay
John Blair Linn Goodwin (1912-1994) was a novelist, painter as well as a collector, primarily of modern art. He was born in Manhattan to a distinguished family of artists, collectors and art patrons and was the grandson of James Junius Goodwin, a cousin of J. Pierpont Morgan, who left an estate valued at US$30,000,000 in 1915. His uncle, Phillip L. Goodwin, was one of the architects of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He counted the writers Paul Bowles, Christopher Isherwood, Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote among his friends as well as the artists Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy and Roberto Matta. His collection was inherited by Anthony P. Russo upon Goodwin's death and besides extraordinary modern paintings it comprised various Asian works of art including Japanese prints, paintings and works of art and a group of Nepalese and Tibetan gilt bronze Buddhist figures.
The inscription on the present sculpture reads:
Shuibao cun Yang Tong
Huo Yuan gong yi zun
Yuan tian xia ren an
Which may be translated as:
'Yuan Tong and Huo Yuan of Shuibao village jointly donate this piece, wishing peace for all under heaven'
This important inscription in many ways follows a similar format to the inscription on the Luohan dated to 1158 in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor, Maine, where the name of the donor is also inscribed. The inscription on the Rockefeller Luohan reads, 'Mr Wang Shi of Dicun vowed to sponsor the donation of one image of a Luohan. Ninth month of the third year of the Zhenlong era. Artisan Li Fu.' (fig. 1)
Julia K. Murray notes in Asian Sculpture in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, New York, 1994, p. 26, "the inscription on the Rockefeller arhat makes it clear that the sculpture was made in North China during the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), the alien Jurchen regime that controlled North China after capturing the Song capital of Kaifeng in 1125. Although the Song royal house continued to rule in the south (as the 'Southern Song'), it used a different set of reign names to designate the years. 'Zhenlong' is a Jin reign name, and the ninth lunar month of its third year corresponds to October 1158. Neither the donor, Wang Shi nor his hometown, Dicun, can be identified, nor is anything known about the sculptor, 'Father Li' whose name is nearly illegible." She continues, "An entry for the inscription on the Rockefeller arhat appears in a mid-nineteenth-century catalogue (Shen Tao, Changshan zhen shi zhi - preface dated 1842 - juan 13, p. 20b) of inscribed monuments and tablets in Zhengding, about 130 miles southwest of Beijing. At that time the Rockefeller sculpture was in the Hall of Arthats (Luohan Dian) at the Longxingsi, a major temple in Zhengding." (The temple was destroyed in the early part of the 20th century)
At the time he compiled the work, Shen was serving as local magistrate for Zhengding. His transcription differs slightly from that of Murray, in that he reads the much effaced characters of the artisan's name as 'Li Ren' (man Li) rather than 'Li Fu' (Father Li).
The Rockefeller Luohan is chiselled from the brilliant micaceous marble of Hebei province. The present example also appears to be cut from the same material. The closely comparable stylistic elements of both sculptures, in particular the base rockwork, clearly suggest a similar workshop, if not the same, presumably the same production period.
Other closely related figures include a similarly sized white marble Luohan from the Rousset Collection dated to the Liao or Jin dynasty illustrated by Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth through Fourteenth Century, London, 1925, pl. 582 B. The depiction of the figure with an acutely turned head meditating on an image set within a cloud plume compares very closely with the current figure, as does the stylised rockwork and similarly delineated cloud scrolls supporting the image. Many of the same characteristics including the same unusual ridged outline delineating the edge of the rockwork can be seen on a stone statue designated as a senior cultivating monk dated to the Northern Song dynasty illustrated by Li Jingjie, Shifo Xuancui, Beijing, 1995, p. 125, no. 105.
Two figures illustrated by Osvald Siren, Histoire Des Arts Anciens De La Chine, La Sculpture De L'Epoque Han A L'Epoque Ming, Paris and Brussels, 1930, which also have closely comparable features include a pair of painted red sandstone Luohan from the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, illustrated on pl. 115A, dated to the end of the Song dynasty with a very similar method of outlining the rocky backdrop with a ridge and indented loops. The second, which is also one of a pair of Luohan from the collection of Geheimrat Brandt, Berlin, is dated to the Jin or Yuan dynasty and depicts a monk with sharply turned head looking back over his shoulder. The rockwork of the base is also cut with bevelled facets. A Song dynasty wood sculpture of a Luohan depicting the monk on bevelled rockwork and stretching his neck to glace upward, in the Chang Foundation, Taipei, and illustrated in Ancient Chinese Sculpture II, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 2000, pp. 112-113, p. 46.
Numerous examples of Song dynasty stone carvings, in which various details mirror elements found on the present sculpture can be found in the Dazu County cave complex, near Chengdu. A stone Louhan wearing similarly carved robes and the distinctive knot and tassel is illustrated in Dazu Shike Yishu, The Stone Sculpture of Dazu, Zhongguo Waiwen Chubanshe, Japan, 1981, pl. 41. An apsara set within a very similar cloud plume is illustrated ibid., pl. 12; and for various forms of indented loops delineating the wavy edges of the rockwork, see ibid., pls. 69 and 80.
Another comparable marble sculture broadly dated 'Song to Ming dynasty' is illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture II, The National Palace Museum, Taipei, p. 132, no. 42. The figure is slightly smaller being 26 1/2 in. high but the treatment of the rock base is stylistically very close. The fragment of the upper torso of a meditating monk from the Reitberg Museum, which is tentatively dated to the late 12th century, and which shares similar traits: the head turned upward and to one side with eyes closed in meditation; similar facial features, including the bald head, large ears, slightly hooked nose and pinched mouth, is illustrated by Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculptures in the von der Heydt Collection, Museum Retiberg, Zurich, 1959, no. 59. The material is catalogued as dense white marble and it is noted that it may have been executed as a memorial statue of a monk if not as one within the Luohan series.
Luohans were followers of the historical Buddha who remained on earth to continue the faith despite attaining enlightenment and the chance to enter nirvana. They are usually depicted as monks with shaven heads and heavy robes. In early depictions they were usually shown with exotic Western features but by the 11th-12th century they were more frequently shown as ethnically Chinese.
In a discussion by T. Watters of the eighteen luohan in 'The Eighteen Lohan of Chinese Buddhist Temples', published in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1898.04, pp. 329-347, the Luohan Fanaposi is described as having a retinue of 1400 subordinate luohan and is appointed to station the Habitable Mountain. He is sometimes represented sitting in a cave meditating with eyes closed or his hands in a mudrital, or he nurses his right knee. Watters also notes that the iconography of the images was set in the Tang dynasty around AD880 when an artist named Guan Xiu made pictures of the sixteen luohan which were given to a Buddhist monastery near Qiantang in Zhejiang province. These became famous and were reserved with great care and ceremonious respect.
The inscription on the present sculpture reads:
Shuibao cun Yang Tong
Huo Yuan gong yi zun
Yuan tian xia ren an
Which may be translated as:
'Yuan Tong and Huo Yuan of Shuibao village jointly donate this piece, wishing peace for all under heaven'
This important inscription in many ways follows a similar format to the inscription on the Luohan dated to 1158 in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor, Maine, where the name of the donor is also inscribed. The inscription on the Rockefeller Luohan reads, 'Mr Wang Shi of Dicun vowed to sponsor the donation of one image of a Luohan. Ninth month of the third year of the Zhenlong era. Artisan Li Fu.' (fig. 1)
Julia K. Murray notes in Asian Sculpture in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, New York, 1994, p. 26, "the inscription on the Rockefeller arhat makes it clear that the sculpture was made in North China during the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), the alien Jurchen regime that controlled North China after capturing the Song capital of Kaifeng in 1125. Although the Song royal house continued to rule in the south (as the 'Southern Song'), it used a different set of reign names to designate the years. 'Zhenlong' is a Jin reign name, and the ninth lunar month of its third year corresponds to October 1158. Neither the donor, Wang Shi nor his hometown, Dicun, can be identified, nor is anything known about the sculptor, 'Father Li' whose name is nearly illegible." She continues, "An entry for the inscription on the Rockefeller arhat appears in a mid-nineteenth-century catalogue (Shen Tao, Changshan zhen shi zhi - preface dated 1842 - juan 13, p. 20b) of inscribed monuments and tablets in Zhengding, about 130 miles southwest of Beijing. At that time the Rockefeller sculpture was in the Hall of Arthats (Luohan Dian) at the Longxingsi, a major temple in Zhengding." (The temple was destroyed in the early part of the 20th century)
At the time he compiled the work, Shen was serving as local magistrate for Zhengding. His transcription differs slightly from that of Murray, in that he reads the much effaced characters of the artisan's name as 'Li Ren' (man Li) rather than 'Li Fu' (Father Li).
The Rockefeller Luohan is chiselled from the brilliant micaceous marble of Hebei province. The present example also appears to be cut from the same material. The closely comparable stylistic elements of both sculptures, in particular the base rockwork, clearly suggest a similar workshop, if not the same, presumably the same production period.
Other closely related figures include a similarly sized white marble Luohan from the Rousset Collection dated to the Liao or Jin dynasty illustrated by Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth through Fourteenth Century, London, 1925, pl. 582 B. The depiction of the figure with an acutely turned head meditating on an image set within a cloud plume compares very closely with the current figure, as does the stylised rockwork and similarly delineated cloud scrolls supporting the image. Many of the same characteristics including the same unusual ridged outline delineating the edge of the rockwork can be seen on a stone statue designated as a senior cultivating monk dated to the Northern Song dynasty illustrated by Li Jingjie, Shifo Xuancui, Beijing, 1995, p. 125, no. 105.
Two figures illustrated by Osvald Siren, Histoire Des Arts Anciens De La Chine, La Sculpture De L'Epoque Han A L'Epoque Ming, Paris and Brussels, 1930, which also have closely comparable features include a pair of painted red sandstone Luohan from the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, illustrated on pl. 115A, dated to the end of the Song dynasty with a very similar method of outlining the rocky backdrop with a ridge and indented loops. The second, which is also one of a pair of Luohan from the collection of Geheimrat Brandt, Berlin, is dated to the Jin or Yuan dynasty and depicts a monk with sharply turned head looking back over his shoulder. The rockwork of the base is also cut with bevelled facets. A Song dynasty wood sculpture of a Luohan depicting the monk on bevelled rockwork and stretching his neck to glace upward, in the Chang Foundation, Taipei, and illustrated in Ancient Chinese Sculpture II, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 2000, pp. 112-113, p. 46.
Numerous examples of Song dynasty stone carvings, in which various details mirror elements found on the present sculpture can be found in the Dazu County cave complex, near Chengdu. A stone Louhan wearing similarly carved robes and the distinctive knot and tassel is illustrated in Dazu Shike Yishu, The Stone Sculpture of Dazu, Zhongguo Waiwen Chubanshe, Japan, 1981, pl. 41. An apsara set within a very similar cloud plume is illustrated ibid., pl. 12; and for various forms of indented loops delineating the wavy edges of the rockwork, see ibid., pls. 69 and 80.
Another comparable marble sculture broadly dated 'Song to Ming dynasty' is illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture II, The National Palace Museum, Taipei, p. 132, no. 42. The figure is slightly smaller being 26 1/2 in. high but the treatment of the rock base is stylistically very close. The fragment of the upper torso of a meditating monk from the Reitberg Museum, which is tentatively dated to the late 12th century, and which shares similar traits: the head turned upward and to one side with eyes closed in meditation; similar facial features, including the bald head, large ears, slightly hooked nose and pinched mouth, is illustrated by Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculptures in the von der Heydt Collection, Museum Retiberg, Zurich, 1959, no. 59. The material is catalogued as dense white marble and it is noted that it may have been executed as a memorial statue of a monk if not as one within the Luohan series.
Luohans were followers of the historical Buddha who remained on earth to continue the faith despite attaining enlightenment and the chance to enter nirvana. They are usually depicted as monks with shaven heads and heavy robes. In early depictions they were usually shown with exotic Western features but by the 11th-12th century they were more frequently shown as ethnically Chinese.
In a discussion by T. Watters of the eighteen luohan in 'The Eighteen Lohan of Chinese Buddhist Temples', published in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1898.04, pp. 329-347, the Luohan Fanaposi is described as having a retinue of 1400 subordinate luohan and is appointed to station the Habitable Mountain. He is sometimes represented sitting in a cave meditating with eyes closed or his hands in a mudrital, or he nurses his right knee. Watters also notes that the iconography of the images was set in the Tang dynasty around AD880 when an artist named Guan Xiu made pictures of the sixteen luohan which were given to a Buddhist monastery near Qiantang in Zhejiang province. These became famous and were reserved with great care and ceremonious respect.