Dobrovits Aladár szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 3-4. (Budapest, 1959)

HOPP FERENC KELETÁZSIAI MŰVÉSZETI MÚZEUM - Tibor Horváth: The new acquisitions of the Francis Hopp's Museum

Fig. 4. Fig. 5. From the time of the Five dynasties on, mostly because of the gaining popularity of the Ch'an sect and by the painting practices of its priests, first the Sixteen, then later the Five-hundred Lohans became a much repeated subject in the Chinese painting. In sculpture too, we find many representations of them made of different materials, like wood, ceramic, dried lacquer and bronze. In the Ch'ing period, the Lohans were among the most popular deities. In Japan, the Chinese Lohan paintings were much treasured and eagerly looked for, although the Japanese themselves did not do many similar paintings. It is even more surprising, that the Lohan (Rakan) statues, with probably one or two exceptions, are not earlier then the Edo period (1615—1868): the Sixteen Lohans (Rakan) in the Nanzen-ji, 1628, and Mampuku-ji, 1668, the Fivehundred Lohants in Rakan-ji (Tokyo), c. 1654 and Narita Fudö-dö (Chibaken). Our Lohan, with "a certain rigidity of posture" and having "emphasis on facial expression" (L. Warner)* is a good example of the pictorial representations transmitted to a statue and it is quite different from the youngish looking, smooth faced prototype. 2. China. Buddha. Wood, originally lacquered and gilded. (Fig. 3—5) H. 42,8 cm. About 1400 or the end of the 14th century. Inv. no. 59.8. Purchased from a private collection, where, since 1953, it was listed as a Protected Art Object. Carved from a single block of wood to which the now missing lower arms, constructed separately, were added. A tubular cavity with a diameter of 9 The Craft of the Japanese Sculpture, New York, McFarlane, Warde, McFarlane and Japan Society of New York, 1936.