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Arhat (Luohan)

ca. 1000
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 208
This life-size sculpture is part of a group of sixteen figures that have been known in the West since 1913. Thought to have come from a cave in Yixian, Hebei province, they represent arhats (or luohans, as they are known in China). Arhats were thought to have achieved an advanced state of spiritual development, and were revered as protectors of Buddhism.

Regarded as masterpieces of ceramic sculpture, for their size, naturalistic modeling, and the quality of their three-toned (sancai) glaze, they can be dated securely to the late tenth or eleventh century based on material discovered in 1983 at an ancient kiln site near Beijing.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 遼 三彩羅漢像
  • Title: Arhat (Luohan)
  • Period: Liao dynasty (907–1125)
  • Date: ca. 1000
  • Culture: China
  • Medium: Stoneware with three-color glaze
  • Dimensions: Figure: H. 41 1/4 in. (104.8 cm)
    Base: H. 6 3/4 in. (17.1 cm); W. 36 in. (91.4 cm); D. 33 in. (83.8 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1921
  • Object Number: 21.76
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

More Artwork

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Arhat (Luohan), Stoneware with three-color glaze, China
Arhat (Luohan)
China
ca. 1000
Pillow with a falcon attacking a swan , Zhang family workshop, Stoneware painted with brown and black pigment on white slip under transparent glaze (Cizhou ware), China

Pillow with a falcon attacking a swan

Zhang family workshop
12th–13th century
Bodhisattva Manjushri, Gilt copper alloy, China
Bodhisattva Manjushri
China
Bodhidharma in meditation, White porcelain with transparent glaze (Dehua ware), China
Bodhidharma in meditation
China
17th century
Bodhisattva, probably Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin), Sandstone with pigment, China
Bodhisattva, probably Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin)
China
ca. 550–560

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