Buddhist art: Pottery figure of Lohan, c. 10th-11th century
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Speiser, Werner
Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham
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A man who has come to an understanding of Nirvana, one of a group of pottery figures found at Yizhou in Hebei. "The almost life-size figure of a Lohan which is believed … to have been made at Yizhou not far from Beijing is a masterpiece of Liao sculpture and pottery. Lohans are Buddhist priests or laymen who, usually by drastic ascetic practices, have won an insight into the nothingness of all earthly existence and so stand directly before Nirvana. ... the wise and very individual expression of these portrait heads cannot be proved to belong to any particular century. Dates of any time between the 8th and 13th centuries have been suggested, and now a date about halfway between these extremes seems likely. As the eye lingers on these heads, bodies and clothes, one realises the striving towards truth to nature which goes beyond the impersonal and detached dignity of the classical age, but which is never distracted by inessential detail, and achieves a complete work of art. These figures of Lohans fit naturally into the newly discovered conception of reality current at this time, but their quality surpasses everything else surviving from that age." -- h: 3'5" (University Museum, Philadelphia).
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Archives Series
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1960
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This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without the prior permission of the Archives Program, Australian National University.
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