An ancient Chinese limestone sculpture depicting the head of a laughing lohan. Dating to China's Song Dynasty, circa 960 - 1279 AD.

The lohan is shown with typical chubby face and bald head, his smiling mouth with teeth showing, the prominent creases in the corners of the mouth and eyes suggestive of laughter. The back of the head is roughly worked, indicating that this sculpture was placed in a niche in ancient times.

China’s adoption of Buddhism has resulted in some of the most spectacular sculpture in the world. In Buddhist teachings a lohan (or arhat) is one who has escaped from the endless cycle of death and rebirth but has chosen to remain in this world to spread the Buddha’s message.

This exquisite sculpture, with its humorous depiction of a lohan, would have adorned one of the great Buddhist cave temples, hewn from the mountains of Northern and Central China.

Height: 11 inches (28cm); 15 inches (38cm) as mounted.

Condition: Overall an honest example in very good condition. Mounted on a removable ebonised wood base. Fragmentary as shown. Some minor visible chips. The end of the nose restored. Remains of green and black pigment (on the face and eyes respectively).

Provenance:

By repute, New York Art Market, early 1900s. Subsequently sold at Doyle Auction House in the 1980s.

Subsequently in a New York private collection, passed by inheritance. Purchased from the above by ArtAncient in 2015. Art Loss Register search No. S00118814.

Compare a piece of almost identical style and size, possibly carved by the same hand, that recently sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/literati-curiosity-ii-hk0631/lot.2835.html