Large Sancai figure of a Luohan, Ming Dynasty (c. 1500 to 1525 China)

68.00cm high    (  26.77 inches high)

Dr. Patrizia Jirka: Pantheon, International Art Journal 1973; Ein Keramik-Lohan im Museum fuer Ostasiatische Kunst in Berlin

Hotel Drouot, Catalogue Objets d'Art de la Chine, Collection Paul Houo-Ming Tse de Pekin, 15/17 February 1932 lots 56, 57

The figure covered in green, yellow-brown, black, turquoise and cream glazes, seated in meditation holding a manuscript in the left and prayer beads in the right hand.

This figure was part of a group of 16 or 18 Luohan from a temple and was originally seated on a pedestal. The dating is based on research done by Dr Patrizia Jirka-Schmitz on a figure of the same group in the Museum of Far Eastern Art in Berlin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York houses a Parirnirvana group with several small Luohan statues dated and signed by Hui Tai. The correspondence of the facial features and the treatment of the garment folds between these Luohans and the one in Berlin is so surprising, that she attributes the Berlin figure with some certainty to the school of Hui Tai, if not to the artist himself. Figures of the same group also appeared in the Drouot sale in February 1932 from the collection of Paul Houo-Ming Tse.

ref.# 4354