Arhats

CHINA; Southern Song dynasty

These three pictures were painted in 1207 by Liu Songnian and are currently kept in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The first painting portrays an Arhat with a wrinkled face, a high-bridged nose, and bushy eyebrows. His long ears are pierced with gold earrings, and he wears a monastic robe decorated with gold patterns. The Arhat rests his arms on the branch of a tree and looks down at two deer that stand at the bottom of the picture, gazing up intently. A novice holding a staff stands on the right, using the sleeves of his robe to catch fruit passed to him by two monkeys in the tree overhead.
In the second picture, a barefooted Arhat sits in front of a large rock, wearing a monastic robe similar to that worn by the Arhat in the first image.His open mouth gives his face an animated appearance. A foreign king stands in the lower right corner, offering the Arhat a bowl of treasures. The king is depicted smaller in size to emphasize the greatness of the Arhat. “Ax-cut” strokes were used to paint the rock cliff.
In the third painting, an Arhat holding a staff sits in front of a painted screen. On the right, a bowing attendant holding a sutra looks up, appearing to ask for guidance. The Arhat stares into the distance and answers with silence.