Page 71 - September 23 to 24 Important Chinese Art Christie's NYC

The present carving belongs to a group of jade carvings that first appeared in illustrated by J. Rawson in Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing,
the late Ming to early Qing dynasties, depicting luohan (disciples of Buddha London, 1995, pp. 410-11, no. 29:19 and fig. 1, where, p. 410, the author also
known as arhats in Sanskrit) within a mountainous grotto setting. A selection gives an enlightening discussion on the context and significance of this
of the eighteenth-century versions is inscribed with dedicatory or poetic group of carvings.
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 Compare, also, with three jade carvings in the Asian Art Museum of San
a luohan in a grotto included in the eighteenth-century catalogue Gu yu tu pu. Francisco, one of Bodhidharma and two of luohan in a rocky setting,
illustrated in Later Chinese Jades: Ming Dynasty to Early Twentieth Century
See two slightly smaller comparable jade carvings of luohan seated against from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, 2007, pp. 284-
a backdrop of rock faces in the collection of the British Museum, London, 86, nos. 315, 316 and 317.

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