A SUPERBLY CARVED AND RARE SOAPSTONE FIGURE OF NAGASENA 17TH CENTURY, BY WEI RUFEN |

depicted seated with his left leg raised supporting the arm, his right arm lifted holding a long stick picking his ear, clad in loose robes falling into voluminous folds, the borders incised and gilt with floral scrolls against a wave ground, his facial features sensitively rendered with cheerful slit eyes, finely incised eyebrows and moustache, and a grin, the gaoshan stone of a rich vermillion-red tone lightening to a golden caramel tone, the beige-tone soapstone stand simulating pierced rockwork covered in padded cushion incised with diaper grounds, incised with a signature reading Wei Rufen juan (carved by Wei Rufen)

Only a small number of soapstone artists active in Fujian province around the 17th century actually signed their work, and of these, the apex of quality was achieved by Wei Rufen, Yang Yuxuan and Zhou Bin. There is little recorded on Wei Rufen in traditional connoisseurship, but this may well be because he was less prolific than others, whose work is much more commonly found. It may also be because his work was confined to figural carvings rather than seal carvings, which leave deeper archival traces in colophons of paintings handed down through the generations.

The current figure is carved from a boulder of gaoshan stone of superb quality. Gaoshan stone, which originates in Gaoshan mountain in Fujian, is relatively soft, looser and drier than other shoushan stones. It lends itself particularly well to the high quality boyi (extreme low-relief) carving style so superbly demonstrated on the current figure. By cutting the stone into a small block and just lightly carving the surface in order to preserve as much of the original material as possible, the 'skin-deep' design achieves an extraordinarily high level of naturalism, as so superbly demonstrated by the powerful facial expression. The luohan is enhanced by the rockwork cushion, boldly incised in lishu (clerical) script on the underside.

For other known signed carvings by Wei Rufen, see a figure of Bodhidharma in the Shanghai Museum, a gift of Hu Ruizhi, illustrated by Shen Zhiyu, ed., The Shanghai Museum of Art, New York, 1983, no. 208; and also by Robert D. Mowry, Objects from the Chinese Scholar's Studio. Examples from the Shanghai Museum, Orientations, August 1987, p. 24, illustrated on the cover (fig. 1); a figure of a luohan in the National Museum of China, donated by Zhou Desu in 1960, and another in Fujian Provincial Museum. Other figures by Wei Rufen which have appeared at auction include a figure sold in our London rooms, 23rd April 1990, lot 57A; a figure of the luohan Kanakabharadvaja, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th October 2004, lot 338, and later in the Mary and George Bloch and Q collections, and a figure of an immortal and deer, sold in these rooms, 31st October 2004, lot 125.

Nagasen was a Buddhist sage born in Kashmir who lived in the 2nd century BC and later became recognised as one of the eighteen luohan. As in the current figure, he is customarily depicted as a bald, elderly monk scratching his ear with a stick to symbolise purification of the sense of hearing, adherence to truth and avoidance of gossip.