Unknown
Chinese
Seated Luohan , 1279-1368 ca.
wood, gesso, and polychrome
45 × 33 1/2 × 28 in.
SBMA, Gift of Ina T. Campbell
1944.1
RESEARCH PAPER
The SBMA Seated Lohan is a polychrome wood sculpture of a seated man. Once richly painted dark reddish-brown with red and blue floral designs, his skirt with a sash and shawl draped over his shoulders are so real it is as if you could feel the coolness of the silks against the warmth of his skin. His body is relaxed, but his face is alive! He seems to be telling us something as his eyes gaze downward from his niche in the gallery.
Acquired with funds provided by Ina T. Campbell, this near life size figure (45 1/2”) was added to the SBMA Chinese Collection in 1944; evidencing the keen eyes of the Museum’s founders and the importance of Asian Arts since the beginning of the Museum. It was one of the two sculptures an American missionary, The Reverend Theodore Pitcairn, purchased in 1922, from a Buddhist Temple Compound in Central Northern China. Though the two Lohans have different faces, gestures and attributes, they are similar in size, made the same way and had the same artistic sensitivity to line and form.
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
A Lohan (arhat in India) is one of the original humans to whom Buddha entrusted his teachings. According to Meher McArthur, Lohan in Chinese, (or Arhat in pre Buddhist Indian terminology), refers to those wise humans who because they understood “the truth about reality” were allowed to be the “protectors/preservers” Of the Buddhist Laws. In sharing their wisdom, they are thought of as “teachers” and provide inspiration to all mortals. We see the open mouth of the SBMA Lohan, sharing a parable or a riddle from the Buddhist Teachings. We see the enlightenment in the joyousness of his countenance. Since Lohan’s were believed to have achieved total enlightenment they were assured of nirvana at death. Bodhisattvas differ from Lohans because they seek not only their own enlightenment, but also are responsible for the enlightenment of all other beings.
In Northern Buddhism, there were originally sixteen principal Lohans, but the Chinese added two, totaling 18. It is said they came from different backgrounds to suggest that all types of people can achieve enlightenment and that Buddha sent them to all the geographic regions to spread his teachings. One of them, Rahula, is believed to have been the son of Buddha.
Lohans are generally depicted as elderly monks with shaved heads, wearing the “three Buddhist garments”, an undercoat, a patchwork robe and a shawl (though often the undergarment is not visible). The patchwork garment alludes to their ascetic life, piecing together what they are given by others. They most often carry a scroll of Buddhist teachings or a staff as symbol of their ability to lead.
Each of the 18 Lohans have distinctive gestures and attributes associated with them. However, especially in later sculptures, the symbols of many different Lohans were combined in one sculpture to remind the worshipper of the special attributes of all the Lohans.
THE SBMA Lohan has been called the “long eyebrow” (Pindola) by more than one Sinologist who has studied it. His long bushy eyebrows have grown so long because he was believed to have been reincarnated or to have lived many lifetimes. He is seated and his right hand seems to be petting something, which is now missing: perhaps the lion associated with Pindola. It could, however, also have been the tiger that Bhadra, another Lohan, tames or he may be holding down the dragon associated with still another Lohan, Panthaka. In taming the dragon, Panthaka was able to control the wild storms and harness the rain to grow the crops.
His left hand may have held that traditional staff, the scroll, a fan or he may be snapping his fingers to make a point (as was suggested by one of the experts). The fan was used by scholar/mortals to accent a specific point in discussion, but it is also associated with one of the Taoist immortals that could use the fan to revive the soul of a dead person or invoke a spirit to assist with some mortal task.
Out of admiration for their great knowledge, stories developed that simply by snapping their fingers; Lohans could come up with an answer to even the most complex question. Over time, however, other legends were invented about the Lohans imbuing them with magical powers. Some believe that at will (in the snap of a finger), a Lohan can just float away, or pass through a solid wall like a ghost, or shrink until there was nothing left but a wisp of air.
His unrealistically elongated earlobes symbolize his Indian origin and his relationship to Buddha. In the time of Buddha, it was an Indian custom for men of high position to wear heavy jewelry, including earrings that made the earlobes stretch. Enlightened beings have usually been portrayed as having elongated earlobes to remind us of Buddha’s princely origins as Siddhartha. The protuberance on his forehead is symbolic of his great wisdom.
It was for this great wisdom, deep understanding of Buddhist laws and the example that any common person could achieve enlightenment that the Lohans have been venerated since around the 10th Century in China.
STYLE, METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION, AND MATERIAL
Style:
In the curatorial files, the dating of the SBMA sculpture remains ambiguous. When the SBMA Lohan was first purchased it was thought to have been made in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). But later, when the style and method of construction were compared to other sculptures at great institutions, experts have revised the dating to the Yuan Dynasty.
Like the Song Dynasty, the SBMA Lohan is realistic but he is also more expressionistic like those made in the Yuan Dynasty.
Typical to Chinese Buddhist sculpture of both of these times, his face is full and round with realistic rolls of flesh about the neck and chin. The color of his skin is naturalistic rather than gilded like earlier periods. He may have once had the glass eyes added to enhance the sense of realism.
His plump hands, however, are more delicately and realistically modeled than was common in Song Dynasty and the rich colorful embroidered flowers in the robe are similar to the brocaded garments of the Yuan Dynasty.
Because the Lohans were mortals, it was permissible to represent them as distinct individuals rather than stereotypes. Even in the earliest curatorial records it was reported that his face is clearly unique compared to the other Lohans in the group collected by Pitcairn. It is not know, however, if like some of the oldest Lohan sculptures, he may even be a portrait based on a living model.
His animated facial expression combined with the sense of life in his arms and shoulders typify the expressionistic style brought in during the Yuan Dynasty, in contrast to the more contained sculptures of the Song Dynasty.
Method Of Construction And Material
The SBMA Lohan is a wood core dry lacquer sculpture.
Since the period of the Six Dynasties (220-581CE), this method of creating wood core dry lacquer sculptures had existed. The method enabled a lighter sculpture to be made and therefore, it became possible to carry it in religious processions. The hollow space was used to store sacred ritual objects. (During restoration, the main body of the SBMA Lohan was reported as being hollow though it was resealed after the conservation work was done). This method of construction was revived during the Yuan Dynasty.
The SBMA Seated Lohan was created by joining some delicately carved parts to a simple wooden box frame that made the base for the body and then this whole form was cross braced to give it strength. Features like the face and hands were made of whole pieces of wood that were sculpted in careful detail so that the sculptor could portray the vivid emotions and uniqueness of the features. Before being joined to the frame, these parts would have been hollowed out so they would be thin enough to dry evenly and not split with aging.
Layers of lacquer-drenched fabric were draped over the frame to create the supple forms of the arms and body and glued with lacquer paste. As it dried, the mass solidified to make the final shapes we see. The Lohan seems casual and maybe even as if momentarily he will shift his weight. His shoulders sag slightly rather than are squared off and formal, as they would be if made in stone or bronze. For the SBMA Lohan, one expert suggests that the fabric used was probably a coarse weave much like cheesecloth. It was chosen so that the flowers in the gown would be three-dimensional replicating the texture of embroidery, which has been stitched onto the base silk.
The shapes and textures having been created and hardened, the whole figure was then covered with layers of gesso and painted.
Red, pink, blue, green and brown powdered pigments had been created from lead, azurite, indigo and malachite as early as the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100BCE) and were discovered on tomb artifacts from 150BCE. These powders were combined with Tung oil to make them spreadable. Since the natural chemistry of lacquer was incompatible with certain pigments and mediums, the white silica based gesso layer provided a neutral base onto which the rich variety of colors could be painted.
Though, as early as the Tang Dynasty (618-907CE) it was also customary to gilt Buddhist Sculptures, in 1040, the Emperor forbade it’s use on religious artworks. Consequently the naturalistic image like the SBMA Lohan was developed. (Gilding was only returned with the opulence of the Ming Court.)
SUMMARY
Sculpture was not regarded as a high art in China because it requires a lot hard labor void of intellectual stimulation or contemplation. It was done by simple laborer/craftsmen whose names are unknown. By contrast, painting has always been considered the highest of the arts. It requires the artist have both refined sensibility and controlled discipline to create the artwork. So the Yuan sculptors, especially led by one famous sculptor, Li Yuan, attempted to produce the rich fluid and colorful qualities of paintings in their sculptural works. It fit for him to turn back to the lacquer and wood technique as his “canvas."
Even though the SBMA Lohan sculpture is constructed of wood, there are no sharp marks of a chisel visible. Rather there is the smooth brushwork like lines that make the silk look as if it is just naturally lying across the form of the body. Not only do the sweeping lines of the robe echo the long strokes of the brush, but the incised lines of the embroidered fabric curl and twist as if painted by the tip of the brush.
Since 1944 when this sculpture entered in the collection, the Seated Lohan has been admired as one of the finest wooden sculptures “west of Kansas” and is one of the highlights of the Chinese Collection of SBMA.
Prepared for the SBMA Docent Council by Kyoko Sweeney/Gail Elnicky: December 2004
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Meher McArthur: Reading Buddhist Art: An Illustrated Guide to Buddhist Signs and Symbols, London:Thames and Hudson LTd., 2002.
Ricki Morse: October 1995: Asian Art Study Group Paper: (see files)
SBMA Curatorial files: including these two articles:
Mary Shepherd Slusser: “The Art of East Asian Lacquer Sculpture” published in Orientations, January, 1996.
Donna K Strahan: “The Walters Chinese Wood and Lacquer Buddha: A Technical Study” in The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, Volume 51, 1993
POSTSCRIPT
In the 2012 re-installation of the Asian Galleries the spelling of this object was changed:
Lohan is currently spelled Luohan.
SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS
Luohan (ahat in Sanskrit) are followers of Buddha who have attained some degree of enlightenment. In China they were revered as semi-deified, mountain dwelling ascetics concerned with personal salvation. Usually depicted as humans, they often appear in art in groups of 16 to 18, or as many as 500.
The dramatic characterization of this luohan with his high-ridged nose, protruding forehead, and long eyebrows and earlobes is a Chinese interpretation of his semi-divine qualities and his Indian origin. Downcast eyes and open mouth suggest that he is speaking. His right hand is lowered, possibly to stroke a now-missing pet, and his left hand may have held an object.
- Ridley-Tree Gallery, 2016