宋/元 銅降龍羅漢像宋/元 銅降龍羅漢像銘款：信士馬洋同妻余氏鑄造29 1⁄2 in. (75 cm.) highDetails A VERY RARE BRONZE FIGURE OF XIANGLONG LUOHAN SONG-YUAN DYNASTY, 13-14TH CENTURYThe luohan is cast seated with his legs pendant; his left hand is holding an alms bowl with a coiled dragon on top, and his right arm is raised, holding a pearl in his right hand. The slightly tilted head looks towards his left hand; his face cast with exaggerated facial features with a broad, hooked nose and large bulging eyes under flame-like eyebrows. He is wearing an Indian-style robe exposing his right shoulder and large rotund belly. The lower half of the robe gathers in swirling folds around the knees and terminates in curling edges, and is decorated with a band of incised clouds around the collar and a four-clawed dragon in the lower central recess. It is inscribed on the lower back with a dedication ‘xinshi Ma Yang tong qi Yushi zhuzao’ (cast by devotee Ma Yang and his wife nee Yu). 29 1⁄2 in. (75 cm.) high Provenance A private collection, Taipei, acquired in 2003 (by repute) Exhibited Footsteps of The Buddha, Sotheby’s New York, 3-23 September 2013, Catalogue, no. 9品相: The current figure of luohan is holding an alms bowl with a coiled dragon on top in his left hand, while in his raised right hand he is holding a pearl, as if taunting the dragon with it. These attributes help to identify himas the seventeenth of the Eighteen Luohan: Xianglong Luohan (Dragon- taming Luohan). It is cast in a very eccentric and animated style that is the hallmark of early Luohan sculptures.The identity of Xianglong Luohan is disputable, since it is not rooted in Buddhist scripture, and was added to the Sixteen Luohan prescribed in Nandimitravadana by Chinese worshipers. Su Shi identifies him as Nandimitra, the author of Nandimitravadana, while monk Zhipan in the Southern Song Dynasty argues that he is Mahakasyapa, one of theprinciple disciples of Buddha Sakyamuni, an identification later adopted by the Qianlong Emperor in the 18th century. Although Xianglong Luohan is not recorded in Buddhist scriptures, the story of a dragon- taming monk can be traced back to Sakyamuni himself, as he was said to have performed a miraculous act of taming a dragon (naga, also ‘serpent’) and confining it in his alms bowl when he tried to convert the nonbeliever Uruvilakasyapa.The earliest example of this iconography seems to have appeared in the Wuyue Kingdom period, as one of the Sixteen Luohan sculpture in the Yanxia Cave in Hangzhou (fig. 1) was carved as a monk holding a pearl in his right hand and an alms bowl in his left. However, no dragon is depicted, and since he is one of the Sixteen Luohan, his identity is unlikely to be Xianglong Luohan, who is seventeenth of the Eighteen Luohan. Nevertheless, it is certain that this iconography appears bythe 10th century. The current luohan is depicted as a foreigner with very exaggerated facial features that recall those of Guanxiu’s luohan paintings with their caricature rendering of expressions. However, the most striking aspect on the current figure is the swirling pattern of the robe, which appears to have been inspired by Northern Song templesculptures. See, for example, two Northern Song examples of Xianglong Luohan, one in the Baosheng Temple (fig. 2) with the edge of his robe ending in distinctive curls; one in the Chongqing Temple with parallel folds on the lower robe and concentric circles on the right knee. The incised cloud scroll around the edge of the robe and the dragon design on the lower robe can be compared to the dragon and cloud motiffound on Jin Dynasty Ding wares, such as the dish in the Shanghai Museum (fig. 3). The current bronze is a very rare example of early luohan sculpture that shows the eccentric influences of Guanxiu and the freedom with which the sculptor had in approaching his subject.The dating of this lot is consistent with the results of the thermoluminescence test from Oxford Authentication Ltd, no. C117c20.