Seated Arhat with Two Attendants
1204
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Seated Arhat with Two Attendants is a 1204 unspecified by Unknown, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A robed man sits on a rock under a gnarled tree, one hand raised. Two smaller figures stand beside him—one holds a scroll, the other carries a wild goose. The man’s face is calm, almost hidden under heavy brows. This painting comes from a set of scrolls showing Buddhist disciples called arhats. The artist made the main figure much bigger than the others, so your eye goes straight to him. The wild goose wasn’t just a gift—it was a symbol of freedom in Chinese art. To see more like this, look up *china, southern song dynasty (1127-1279)*.
Arhat, or Lohan (羅漢 in Chinese), were the disciples of the historical Buddha. Later tradition tended to picture them in sets of 16, 18, or as many as 500. This is one painting from a larger set, with a seated arhat portrayed on a grand scale, overshadowing his own attendant as well as the ferocious figure who approaches him with an offering of a wild goose.
The arhat holds a rolled up scroll, likely a sutra, and is seated before a standing screen decorated with a landscape painting.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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