WINTER EXHIBITION 2008 - Roger Keverne

97
A very fine soapstone figure
circa 1700
Height: 3N in, 9.5 cm
of a luohan, seated with his right knee raised to balance books that he holds steady with his
left hand; the books are draped with a cloth inscribed with two characters, reading Jing wen
(Classical text). The figure’s head is superbly carved with a tall crown, a wrinkled forehead,
incised, straggly eyebrows, downcast eyes, prominent cheekbones, an incised beard and hair,
long earlobes and raised veins at his temples. He wears layered robes falling in soft folds and
tied with a clasp over one shoulder; his shoes protrude from the hems. The hems of the robes
and the cloth are incised and gilt with waves, and lotus flowers on waves. The stone varies in
tone from pale cream, used mainly for the head, to deep orange for the outer robe and shoes.
Formerly in a European private collection and acquired in Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion.
The quality of carving of this Shoushan soapstone figure is of the highest standard and perhaps
surpasses that of a similar example illustrated in Palace Museum, Images of Buddha:
Collections of the Palace Museum, no. 156, p. 223. Note also related figures of Bodhidharma,
in Li and Watt, The Chinese Scholar’s Studio: Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period, no. 53, in
the collection of the Shanghai Museum; and in Zhu, Ming Qing Guwan Zhenshang, p. 245.
For jade boulders worked with similar luohan, see Tsiang, Radiance and Virtue: The R. Norris
Shreve Collection of Chinese Jade and Other Oriental Works of Art, pl. 24, p. 39; and Watt,
Chinese Jades from Han to Ch’ing, no. 104, pp. 122–3, in the collection of the Fogg Art
Museum, Harvard University.
ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2008 123