Lot 313. A rare gilt-bronze figure of a luohan, Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368); 10.3cm high. Sold for £6,400. © Bonhams 2023

The adept finely cast seated with his right leg raised to his left knee, clad in long flowing robes revealing his chest and bare right shoulder, his right arm raised holding a sphere, the shaved head with arched brows and serene expression, the reverse with two tabs, wood stand. 

Provenance: Spink and Son Ltd., London (label)
A French private collection.

Note: Luohan, also known as Arhats or 'Destroyers of the Passions', vary in numbers between 16 and 108 and were depicted in Chinese art from the Tang dynasty onwards. The group of sixteen Arhats was first mentioned in the Indian 'Mahayanavataraka' scriptures, which were translated into Chinese in 437, whilst the full transcript of the sixteen names was given by the pilgrim monk Xuan Zang in in 653, with the additional two that were probably adopted towards the end of the 10th century.

There are very few surviving examples of gilt-bronze figures of luohan dating to early times, thus making the present figure rare. Compare with a related albeit much larger gilt-bronze figure of a luohan, Yuan dynasty, illustrated in Chinesische Kunst in Tschechoslowakischen Museen, Prague, 1954, no.115. See also another gilt-bronze figure of a monk, 11th/12th century AD., illustrated in D.Patry Leidy and D.Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven, 2010, no.25.

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART, London, 2 November 2023