A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF A LUOHAN MING DYNASTY, 16TH / 17TH CENTURY

cast standing with hands in front of the chest and dressed in monastic robes with sleeves falling in naturalistic folds, the full face with downcast eyes under fine arched brows 

Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1998, lot 1031.

This piece is a rare example of late Ming period. It is notable for the sensitively rendered face, with his short upper lip and pursed mouth on a round face with full cheeks and chin, and may have been based on an actual priest or patron. A comparable figure, similarly lacking robe decoration and dated to the 16th / 17th century, was included in the exhibition Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, The Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1993, cat. no. 77.

By the late Tang and early Song dynasties, two genres of luohan portraits were distinguishable And continued throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties: one was established by the monk Guanxiu (832-912) where his paintings portrayed them as gaunt, strangely-featured individuals; the other depicted them in a less distorted and more approachable manner, associated with the late northern Song painter Li Gonglin (c.1041-1106), which this figure follows.