Lohan

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.