Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 14. (Budapest, 1994)
FAJCSÁK Györgyi: Luo-han-festmények a Hopp Ferenc Kelet-Ázsiai Művészeti Múzeum kínai gyűjteményéből
period ( Wu Bin. Ding Yun-peng, Chen Hongshou and Cui Zi-chong) had drawn on both sources, although they essentially went back to the figure painting of the Six Dynasties as well as Tang periods. They established a new school. Retaining their own style, the luohan images - both good and bad characters - were placed against a distorting mirror in a variety or grotesque poses to show the full range of their personalities. Two typical luo-han paintings can be found in the Chinese Collection of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts demonstrated the ascendant Buddhist painting in the late Ming period. The first is a monochrome handscroll painted on silk, with eighteen luo-han figures attributed to Ding Yun-peng. The other is a sixteen-leaf colour album painted on silk, which besides luo-han images enumerated some other figures of the popular Chinese Buddhist pantheon such as Bu-dai, Guanyin, Wen-shu and Da-mo. By investigation and comparison of the two paintings we can probably give an answer how the two former traditions of luo-han depictions were joined in the Chinese painting of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; what kind of Buddhist artistic elements became significant at that particular time; and how the compositions, brush technique and formats of the luo-han paintings were influenced by the main Chinese pictorial genres (landscape, bird and flower painting). II. The handscroll in the Chinese Collection attributed to Ding Yun-peng presents The Eighteen Luo-hans Crossing the Sea. (Inv. No.: 53.803) The size of the ink painting (painted on silk) is 39.5 cm x 195 cm, with an inscription as follows: "Di-zi Ding Yunpeng mu-shou jing-hui" (The young Ding Yun-peng washed his hands and respectfully painted). There are two seals of the artist with his well-known „brush-names": Yunpeng and Nan-yu. 2 The figures of the scroll were placed in sitting or standing posture on the rolling waves in three different groups. A standing luo-han in the first section of the painting welcomes by their look the viewer introducing him into their company. One luo-han of the first group is standing on a lotus-cup his hands folded in front of his chest. Another luo-han placed above holds scrolls on his back. Behind him a bamboo-mat can be seen resembling a mandorla. A jilin-\ike animal accompanies him on his right-hand side. At the front another luo-han, sitting on a lion, is going on the waves. He holds a lotusshaped incense burner with long handle in his left hand. The right hand is raised a gesture of blessing. 3 He is going across the foam to the next group of the luo-hans. A figure holding a lion on his shoulders - a symbol of violent and fierce master - is wearing typical scholar's costume of the Ming period. An attendant next to him holds a fivestoreyed pagoda symbolizing enlightenment, the attainment of nirvana, as final goal for Buddhist believers. Going from right to left on the scroll a sewing luo-han can be seen sitting on a cloth. 4 Another figure leaning on a lion is looking at him? Beside them two luo-hans follow a miraculous act of the third figure with attention. A pagoda - symbol of nirvana - was created on the clouds flying up from his raised finger. The whole picture indicates the rapidity with which this disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni reached enlightenment. 6 On their left hand side there are two luo-hans looking up as well. One of them is throwing cymbals high 7 and the other is watching him. On the highest point of the scroll a luo-han - probably Pindola - can be seen falling down his alms-bowl from the clouds. Pindola features in many legends in China. According to the famous story he was flying to a meeting in a hurry when killed a pregnant women with a rock which fell down suddenly. Since then he has been punished by not being allowed to enter nirvana. He is often depicted with a falling alms-bowl on the scrolls. On left of the scene a luo-han
