Page 226 - 2019 September 13th Christie's New York Important Chinese Works of Art

ANOTHER PROPERTY
936
A YELLOW AND RUSSET JADE CARVING OF
A LUOHAN IN A GROTTO
QING DYNASTY (1644-1911)
The front is well-carved in high relief with a luohan holding a scroll in his
left hand seated within a deep grotto, with a gnarled tree to one side of the
opening. The reverse is carved as a continuation of the rocky mountainside,
the tips of the rocks accented by russet coloring. The stone is of soft yellowish
tone with areas of russet color.
6Ω in. (17 cm.) high
$50,000-70,000

The present carving belongs to a group of jade carvings that frst appeared in
the late Ming to early Qing dynasties, depicting luohan (disciples of Buddha
known as arhats in Sanskrit) within a mountainous grotto setting. A selection
of the eighteenth-century versions is inscribed with dedicatory or poetic
inscriptions linking them to the Qianlong emperor (1736-1795). It is likely that
these carvings in jade were inspired by a woodblock print of a jade carving of
a luohan in a grotto included in the eighteenth-century catalogue Gu yu tu pu.
See two slightly smaller comparable jade carvings of luohan seated against
a backdrop of rock faces in the collection of the British Museum, London,
illustrated by Jessica Rawson in Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing,
London, 1995, pp. 410-11, no. 29:19 and fg. 1, where, p. 410, the author also
gives an enlightening discussion on the context and signifcance of this
group of carvings.
清 黃玉雕羅漢面壁圖山子
(reverse)

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