Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 14. (Budapest, 1994)
FAJCSÁK Györgyi: Luo-han-festmények a Hopp Ferenc Kelet-Ázsiai Művészeti Múzeum kínai gyűjteményéből
his "lotus throne" made of leaves. His famous ten-year long meditation is painted here. An alms-bowl can be seen in front of his throne. Behind Bodhidharma is Hui-ke, the intrepid pupil who cut off his arm to demonstrate to the master his resolution. The scene has been depicted in many forms. I would like to mention only two of them. One was painted by Tai Chin (1388-1462) and the other was made by Sesshu (1420-1506). 46 The mannered academic style can be sensed in the landscape setting which was result of the rigid insistence on declared rules of landscape depiction and codified compositional patterns. In arranging figures (Bodhidharma can be seen from side view) as well as in depicting characteristic costumes (his garment covered the head) the scene accurately followed the pictorial traditions of Bodhidharma depictions based on the Song period. The luon-han album can be dated to the mid-eighteenth century. Its construction reflects the cults and main figures of popular Buddhism in that period very well 47 . With regard to compositions, figurai depictions, brushwork technique and colouring, it is very close to those figure scrolls painted at the Qing-long Academy of Painting, particularly to the paintings of Ding Guan-peng (fl. 17401768) and Yao Wen-han (fl. 1739-1752). Besides details (costumes, embellishments) referring to the eighteenth century, the painter was influenced by the figure painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Compositional elements of Wu Bin's works and some particular features of the Western (European) painting (such as the use of light and shadow effects in the painting of faces) can be sensed on the album-leaves. Strong outlines of the figures as well as elegant and fine colouring show the influence of Ding Yunpeng's paintings. Archaic lines of costumes in the style of the fourth and fifth centuries as well as figures in rich folded garments with loose, flowing sleeves exaggerated movement with long extended lines going back to the style of Chen Hong-shou (1598-1652). Besides great figure painters, woodcut painting manuals and encyclopaedias, had a great influence on album-leaves because main subjects of painting (such as various kinds of trees, flowers, headforms, etc.) and brush techniques (types of the famous techniques, use of ink, etc.) were published in these books and sanctioned the possible varieties. Impressive compositions of handscrolls and sequences of smaller scenes were joined together on the luo-han paintings of the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries, and depicted sometimes more hundred figures. Postures and facial expressions used grotesque elements referred to the peculiar world of the luo-han figures. Idealized faces of living people were often depicted; however, we do not come across people we would have seen in the streets of that time. James Cahill has pointed out that some associations of devout lay adherents belonging to Chan Buddhist temples had series of luo-han paintings painted in which they could themselves appeared recognizably, but this was not at all typical 48 . Figures with strange facial expressions, elongated or squashed down heads, bushy beards and eyebrows as well as peculiar surroundings reflect the syncretic artistic thought of the seventeenth and eigheteenth centuries. Literati painters living in the Chinese Confucian world received significant impetus from art based on Daoism; moreover, Daoist Immortals and Buddhist figures could meet together in these paintings. Often the origin of certain elements is scarcely separable, since they exist a work of art as a unity. The handscroll attributed to Ding Yunpeng and the sixteen-leaf album shows the syncretic use of various Buddhist elements (main iconographical types of some important Buddhist figures, animals used as symbols, attributes, symbol of numbers, etc.) derived from former Chinese Buddhist art. These aspects were connected to the system of Daoist symbols and reflected characteristic features of contemporary scholar life in China.
