Page 36 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF JULIA AND JOHN CURTIS
1611
A WHITE MARBLE FIGURE OF A SEATED LUOHAN
NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY, DATED AD 963
The figure is shown seated on a rock base, dressed in a long robe that opens at the chest and reveals the
luohan’s bony frame. The right arm rests on the bended knee and the left hand is raised and covered with
a cloth to display an object (now missing), with one leg pendent and the other tucked in front of the body
with only the toe emerging from the bottom of the robe above the empty slipper resting on the rock base.
The face is rendered with a pointed nose and full eyebrows and with a contemplative gaze. The back of the
rock base is carved with a lengthy inscription including the date corresponding to AD 963.
18º in. (46.4 cm.) high
$25,000-35,000

PROVENANCE
Kaikodo, New York, 1998.
EXHIBITED
New York, Kaikodo, A Garden Show, 14 September - 24 October 1998.
LITERATURE
Kaikodo, A Garden Show, New York, 1998, pp.150-151, 250-251, no. 58.
The inscription may be read, ‘Madame Jia, the virtuous benefactress (of Buddhism) and mother of Li Yin,
commissioned two Luohan statues for her entire family to worship, the first day of the sixth month of the
fourth year of the Jianlong reign (AD 963).’
Images of luohan, the enlightened semi-historical followers of the Buddha, became exceedingly popular
in China from the Tang period onwards. Because they were often depicted in groups of at least 16,
artists began to imbue the dierent luohan with individualized or distinguishing characteristics of their
spiritual states. Because of the portrait-like depictions of many sculptures of luohan in dierent media
from the Song dynasty onwards, it has been suggested that some of these depictions may have been
portraits of actual monks (see Kaikodo 1998, A Garden Show, p. 150, and pp. 250-251 for illustrations of
luohan figures in dierent media).
The current figure is unusual for its small size and its depiction in marble. Larger stone examples exist
with the luohan similarly posed with a lion or other attribute. See China 5000 Years, New York, 1988, no.
177, for two larger (38 cm.), seated stone figures of arhats (luohan) now in the Shaanxi History Museum.
宋建隆三年 石雕羅漢坐像

(inscription)

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