Two Lohans

Two Lohans

Lohans were revered in China as Buddhist disciples who had attained a high level of enlightenment through their devotion to that faith and its teachings. They were often said to number sixteen or eighteen individuals, but some sources estimate that there were as many as five hundred of them. Their spiritual qualities were manifested in their laughter, and some had distinctive physiognomies or were associated with specific attributes.

In Chinese painting from the ninth century onward, Lohans were depicted both singly and in groups. This tinted drawing unites two of the more popular figures from the tradition, but its edges have probably been cut down, which suggests that they may have been part of a larger gathering of Lohans. With his prominent bare belly and laughing face, the figure on the left appears to be Budai, a popularized representation of Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future, who was associated in Chinese practice with material prosperity and male children.[1] The figure on the right is accompanied by a tiger and carries a staff made from a gnarled tree root. His association with a tiger hints at a power over cosmic forces, and the knobby staff characterizes him as a rustic sage—both are attributes of the Zen Buddhist ascetic Fenggan. The posture and garments of this figure are mirrored in reverse in a Lohan depicted in a Yuan-era painting now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.[2]

The somewhat tentative execution of the drawing and the presence of an attribution to Muhammad Siyah Qalam in its lower-left corner suggest that it was made in Iran or Central Asia rather than in China. Its closest analogues in style and content are found among the paintings that form part of Hazine 2153, an album in the Topkapi Palace Library. Some of these bear attributions to Shaikhi Naqqash, the court painter of Sultan Ya‘qub Aq Quyunlu (r. 1478–90), who ruled from the Iranian city of Tabriz.[3] The most direct parallel to the present work shows five figures in a schematic landscape. A man and two women in "Chinese" dress occupy the foreground, while two laughing Lohans, partially hidden by a hill, are seen behind them. The Lohan on the right carries the same distinctive knobby staff held by the figure in the Metropolitan Museum’s painting.[4]

Priscilla P. Soucek in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]

Footnotes:

1. Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism, 850–1850. Exhibition, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence; Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Catalogue by Marsha Weidner and others. Lawrence, Kans., 1994, pp. 36, 140, 392–93, pl. 28 (I would like to thank my colleague, Dr. Huseh-man Shen, for drawing my attention to this publication); Luohan hua/Bian ji zhe Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan bian ji wei yuan hui. [On cover:] Catalogue for Exhibition on Paintings of Lohans. [Table of contents and introduction in English.] Exhibition, The Palace Museum, Taipei. Catalogue by Li Yumin and others. Taipei, 1990, pls. 30, 44–45.

2. Weidner and others 1994, (footnote 1) pp. 196–207; Taipei 1990 (footnote1), pls. 21, 25, upper-right corner.

3. Cağman, Filiz. "On the Contents of the Four Istanbul Albums H. 2152, 2153, 2154, 2160." Islamic Art 1 (1981), pp. 31–36, figs. 1–490 passim; and Cağman, Filiz, and Zeren Tanındı. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi İslâm Minyatürleri. Tercuman sanat ve kultur yayınları, 1. Istanbul,1979, pp. 30–31, fig. 24.

4. For tinted drawings in Hazine 2153 (fols. 104v, 82v, 8v), see Cağman1981,(footnote 3) figs. 19, 20, 282. For the Lohan figures on Hazine 2153 (fols. 15b, 138a), see ibid., figs. 185, 186.


Two Lohans


This drawing of a pair of lohans, or canonical Buddhist saints, walking with a lioness is an early Timurid copy of a Chinese painting of the Yuan dynasty (1280–1368). Whether, as Basil Gray suggests, the Chinese original came to Iran when the Il-Khanid (Mongol) dynasty ruled Iran in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries or whether it was a "find" during renewed contacts with China under Shah Rukh (r. 1405–1447) is difficult to determine.[1]

So fine a drawing is in itself a testimonial to the high caliber of the Chinese original. The quality of line – fine, clean, and hard-edged – indicates that the copy was achieved with a reed pen as opposed to a brush. Although seemingly an accurate copy that captures the spirit of the original, the perception of abstract patterning, especially in the folds of the garments, is a predilection of the Persian artist.

The appreciation of Chinese art in Iran and its influence on the development of Persian painting are theories too well established to need reiteration here, but they do not in themselves explain the motive behind this particular copy. Did this Chinese drawing simply appeal to the Persian artist as a superior work of art that would challenge his skill to imitate? Did he find the subject matter particularly enticing? Men and beasts in such a jovial frame of mind, as is evident from their laughing faces, must have seemed exotic to a Persian artist. Oddly, lohans do occasionally appear in otherwise characteristically Persian compositions, such as in a miniature in the late-fifteenth-century manuscript of the Mantiq al-Tayr in the Museum's collection.[2]

[Swietochowski and Babaie 1989]

1. Gray, Basil. "A Timurid Copy of a Chinese Buddhist Picture." Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Edited by R. Ettinghausen. New York, 1972, pp. 35–38.

2. Lukens, Marie G. "The Language of the Birds: The Fifteenth-century Miniatures." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. XXV, no. 9, May 1967, pp. 317–38, figs. 29, 30.


Two Luohans with a Tiger

Timurid artists of the early 1400s drew from a wide variety of sources in the Persian, Chinese, and European traditions, and this drawing of two luohans (canonical Buddhist saints) is inspired by Chinese models. While this drawing is faithful to its iconographic source, it is executed in a manner more familiar to the Timurid artist who made it. The drawing portrays two luohans walking, one holding a staff, accompanied by a subjugated tiger. Toh Sugimura identifies the luohans as Fenggan and Budai, two enlightened beings thought to have lived in the ninth century and celebrated in Chan Buddhism. It is a highly sensitive and accomplished rendering in ink that uses razor-sharp lines for the folds of the costume and smaller lines to trace the facial features. A dry brush, or patches of many small lines, build up the tonal stripes that texture the tiger's tail. Small dots, almost stippled, convey the luohan's stubble on beard and pate. Wash conveys the gnarled features of the stick and skeins of colour are applied to selective areas of clothing.

Basil Gray notes that Li Gonglin—his name synonymous with 'pen and ink' (bai-miao)—developed this iconographic type in the 1100s and suggests that the Timurid artist based his design on one of the many copies made in China after the 1100s during the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) period. Alternatively, he proposes that the source could have been a model made in Iran when Buddhism was the state religion under the rule of the Mongol Ilkhanids Hülegü (r. 1256–65 and Arghun (r. 1284–91). Though Buddhist temples in Iran were destroyed in 1295–96, the religion was not completely extirpated. The Timurid artist's model could have been any one of a number of examples made during or after the Song period in China (960–1279), and could equally have been inspired by a model brought to iran during a period of increased contact between China and Iran up until the late 1420s.

Daniel J. Roxburgh in [Roxburgh 2005]

Inscription: In lower left-hand corner in Persian in nasta‘liq script:
استاد محمد ]. . .[ قلم
The master Muhammad [. . .] Qalam

(From "Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," 2011, p. 178).

[ B. H. Breslauer, London, until 1968; sold to MMA]

Washington. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Timur and the Princely Vision. Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century," April 14, 1989–July 6, 1989, no. 87.

Los Angeles. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Timur and the Princely Vision. Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century," August 13, 1989–November 5, 1989, no. 87.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Persian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 13–December 31, 1989, no. 2.

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600–1600," January 22, 2005–April 15, 2005, no. 176.

London. British Museum. "Ming: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450," September 18, 2014–January 4, 2015.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Another World Lies Beyond: Chinese Art and the Divine," August 24, 2019–January 5, 2020.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Mohammedan Manuscripts." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, old series, vol. 9 (1914). ill. pp. 105–6.

Grube, Ernst J. "Reports of the Departments: Islamic Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 27, no. 2 (1968). pp. 103–6, ill. p. 106 (b/w).

Gray, Basil. "A Timurid Copy of a Chinese Picture." Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1972). pp. 35–38, ill. fig. 1 (b/w).

Lentz, Thomas W., and Glenn D. Lowry. "Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century." In Timur and the Princely Vision. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989. no. 87, pp. 187, 347, ill. p. 187 (b/w).

Swietochowski, Marie, and Sussan Babaie. Persian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 2, pp. 14–15, ill. pl. 2 (b/w).

Roxburgh, David J. "Persian Drawings, ca. 1400–1450: Materials and Creative Procedures." Muqarnas vol. 19 (2002). pp. 52, 54, ill. fig. 12 (b/w).

Roxburgh, David J., ed. Turks . A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600–1600. London, New York: Royal Academy of Arts, 2005. no. 176, pp. 226–27, 421, ill. pl. 176 (color).

Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 119, p. 178, ill. (color).