LohanLiu SongnianNone

Lohan (Buddhist ascetics), also called Arhat, is the transliteration of the word of same meaning in Sanskrit. Paintings with the subject of lohans emerged in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and reached its heyday in Song (960-1279). This work with refine brushwork as well as quaint and elegant palette was created by Liu Songnian (1135-1225), a court painter of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). The lohan in this painting, with long, bushy eyebrows and a prominent nose, wears a cassock tied around his left shoulder and a pair of straw sandals, looking like an Indian monk based on either appearance or dressing. He leans on a horizontal tree branch with forearms crossed, contemplating in a frown, as if in deep thought. Above his head are two lovely gibbons, jumping among branches. One of them is outstretching its arm to pass a pomegranate to the attendant monk who stands next to the lohan. In the foreground, two deer stand back-to-back with heads turned upward. Elements of landscape were arranged carefully in an ingenious composition, with curled branches and the two gibbons forming a circle with the same center of the halo behind the lohan. Liu’s exceptional painting skills are not confined to a single category of painting, as the figures, trees, rocks and animals under his brush are all distinctively exquisite, making him a prominent representative of his peers in the middle of Southern Song Dynasty.