Page 203 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

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PROPERTY OF A CONNECTICUT PRIVATE Naturalistically modeled after the sculptural Luohan are protectors of the Buddha’s teaching
COLLECTOR tradition of the Tang dynasty (618-907), figures who reached advanced states of spiritual
A RARE SET OF FIVE FINELY such as the present luohan were produced to awareness. From the 10th to 13th centuries,
MODELED PAINTED POTTERY be displayed in groups in temples to encourage ceramic figures of luohan were made in various
LUOHAN devotees to reach a state of deep meditation. sizes, from small figurines such as the present
SONG DYNASTY Related sculptures include an example in the figures to imposing, life-sized sancai-glazed
models. The present type of painted pottery
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated
each figure seated on a rockwork base in in René-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé, Chinese, and stoneware figures belong to a group that
varying poses of ease or meditation, attired in Korean and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery are usually portrayed sitting on roughly hewn
long, monastic, loose robes falling in naturalistic Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1974, pl. rocks engaged in study and meditation.
folds, two bare-chested and one with the tips of 147; one, likely from the Zijin’an temple, Wu
both square-toed shoes protruding below the Xian, Jiangsu province and now in the Palace The dating of this lot is consistent with the
hem, the expressive countenances sensitively Museum, Beijing, published in Zhongguo Meishu results of thermoluminescence test, Oxford
individualized with finely incised wrinkles, Quanji, Wudai Song Diaosu/Complete Series Authentication Ltd., no. C103n33.
brows, and smile lines, framed by pendulous on Chinese Art, Sculpture, Five Dynasties and $ 40,000-60,000
lobes, with traces of bright green and red Song, vol. 5, Beijing, 1988, pl. 151; one in the
pigment (5) Baerwald Collection, included in the exhibition
Height 11¼ in., 28.6 cm Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Berlin, 1929,
cat. no. 494; and another, once in the Sun Zi 宋 陶加彩羅漢俑一組五尊
PROVENANCE
temple, Shanxi province, from the collection
Sotheby’s New York, 17th September 2003, of Mrs. James Cromwell, sold in these rooms, 來源
lot 51. 4th December 1984, lot 116. See also a luohan 紐約蘇富比2003年9月17日，編號51
from the collection of Arthur Vernay, sold in our
London rooms, 10th June 1986, lot 88, again at
Christie’s Hong Kong, 2nd November 1999, lot
766 and a third time in our Hong Kong rooms,
3rd-4th December 2015, lot 584.

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