Thai Prints

Balinese Traditional Painting, acrylics on canvas by W. Erawati. The scene depicts a dense composition of village life just outside of a temple on a festival day with the numerous fi...

A very fine and delicate Japanese antique hand-painted silk scroll of four playful, diving swallows , likely sparrows or warblers, amidst a plumb tree and waterfall, Taisho period. ...

A fine antique Taisho period Japanese woodblock print. Depicting a swooping heron above a riverbed with a thin sliver of a crescent moon in the background. By Seikо̄. Seikо̄ is tho...

Set of two Mystic Seaport whaling woodblock prints, titled “The Ship Joseph Conrad”, and “Whaleship Chas. W. Morgan” featuring the two famous Victorian whaleships the Charles Morgan and Joseph Conrad docked in the Mystic Seaport Connecticut. Each comes in its original black wood frame signed “Arnold” (for James Arnold...

Chinese framed print detail of larger painting. Expertly framed with double mats of linen and simulated bamboo featuring gold leaf edging on both mats. "Han-Kan Bringing Tribute" New...

A bold, spectacular Japanese hand-brushed, hand-painted silk scroll of two horses below plumb tree mountain- worthy of your favorite room Hand painting on silk in simple soft pleasin...

An antique Japanese Shunga woodblock print in gilt frame depicting two women making love. Created in Japan, this woodblock print called a Shung...

Incredibly detailed Ryohei Tanaka etching of a structure on the Japan countryside c1989. Beautifully framed and matted in a custom rounded edge teak frame. Signed in pencil by artist...

An antique Japanese Shunga woodblock print in gilt frame depicting a man and a woman making love. Created in Japan, this woodblock print called...

Incredibly detailed Ryohei Tanaka etching of a temple in Japan c1995. Beautifully framed and matted in a custom rounded edge teak frame. Ryohei Tanaka (1933-2019) was world renowned...

Incredibly detailed Ryohei Tanaka etching of a structure on the Japan countryside c1993. Beautifully framed and matted. Signed in pencil by artist. Ryohei Tanaka (1933-2019) was wor...

Chinese ink rubbing printing depicting Panthaka Arhat, no.4 of the 16 arhat images immortalized in stone at the former stupa at Shengyin Temple. Depicted here sitting on a rock with a book in his left hand and snapping his fingers in his right hand, symbolic of the speed at which he obtained enlightenment, accompanied by a beggar’s bowl and an incense burner, complete with colophons and silk scroll mounting. The Emperor Qianlong ordered the stone stele to be carved in 1764 after the arhat designs painted by the famed artist Guanxiu (832-912). Even though the temple was destroyed in the Taiping rebellion, the steles remain and have been reinstalled at the Hangzhou Stele Forest. Condition: Creases from rolling, otherwise fine condition. Mounting: 58” x 22”. 19th Century. Ex Collection: Frank “Till” & Peggy Durdin, San Diego. For other rubbings of this stele see: Penn Museum, object number 2010-26-4 The Metropolitan Museum of Art AN#: 59.195.15 Fine Arts Library of Harvard University, record id: W280021_urn-3:FHCL:478850 For another example of this image rendered in jade and lacquer see: “Screen Paintings of Guanxiu’s Sixteen Arhats in the Collection of the Palace Museum” Luo Wehhua translated by Bruce Doar, Orientations, September 2010, p. 104. In this article the image is identified as the sixteenth arhat Abheda, It is explained in this article that Qianlong re-identified the arhats, thus the 16th Arhat attribution for this image. Also in this article the identical colophon by Qianlong above the image is translated as: “These accurate portraits of the Sixteen Arhats were created by the Tang Dynasty painter Guanxiu, as recorded in Xuanhe Huapu (Record of paintings in the Xuanhe Reign), and during the millennium from the Guangming reign period to the present day, the original works were to be found in Zhejiang, where they were housed in the collection of Shengyin Temple in Qiantang (Huangzhou). In spring of the dingchou year (1757) of his reign, the Qianlong emperor undertook a southern tour of inspection and stayed at an imperial lodge on the West Lake. He went to the temple to pay his respects and there he saw the arhats on display and wrote a description of these marvels. The sequence of the arhats and their names had been passed down since ancient times, but they did not correspond to their Sanskrit titles; the sequence of the arhat names conformed instead to the interpretation of the Sanskrit classics by the Zhangjia State Preceptor. The emperor penned the original names and positions in the sequence below each of the figures in accordance with the readings supplied in Tongwen Yuntong (Unified Rhymes), and below each he penned an encomium, which he signed. Then the images were returned to the collection, to be passed down as a perpetual treasure. Now, the fourth great arhat had long gone missing and we did not know where his painting was. But it was merely a trifling matter of matching the images with the names, and now surely we have found him! This I, the emperor, believe.” All 16 of these rubbings can be found in the Rubel Chinese Rubbings Collection at the Fine Arts Library of Harvard University with the following descriptive historical note: “Rubbing from stele depicting No. 4 of 16 arhats (Lohans, Buddhist saints) -- Nan ti mi duo luo qing you, Panthaka Arhat. Original painting attributed to Guanxiu, 832-912. Inscriptions written by Hongli, Emperor Qianlong (Gaozong, 1711-1799) of Qing Dynasty. 7 seals of Qianlong follow the inscriptions. Script style: in xing shu. Shi liu zun zhe -- "The 16 noble ones" are 16 lohans. Lohans are also called "a-lo-han" based on the transliteration of the Sanskrit term "arhat." (Japanese: Rakan; Chinese: Lohan; Tibetan: Gnas-brtan). Arhats or Arahants are saints or sages said to have renounced nirvana (freedom from the cycle of suffering and rebirth), vowed to remain in the world to protect the Dharma and propagate the Law of the Buddha in order to devote themselves more effectively to the relief of human misery, like the Bodhisattvas. These 16 Arhats, personal disciples distinguished by the Buddha, formed part of the 500 claimed by tradition to have attended the First Council in Rajagrha. The names and abodes of these 16 arhats are given in a work entitled "Record on the Duration of the Law, spoken by the Great arhat Nadimitra," which was translated into Chinese by the famous pilgrim Xuanzang (596-664) in 654. 16 lohans are quite often represented, especially in China and Japan, in sculpture and painting, in poses and with attributes. Every lohan can be easily with special icongraphic characteristics. Guanxiu (Jiang Deyin or Deyuan, a Buddhist monk also named Master Chan Yue, 832-912) -- painter during late Tang to Five Dynasties, specialized in painting lohan figures. Legend has it that the first portraits of the 18 Lohans...