A rare pale green and russet jade 'luohan' boulderQianlong
Intricately carved in high relief as a craggy mountain enclosing a luohan standing barefoot with his right hand holding an attribute and left hand holding an incense burner supported on a lotus flower issuing wispy clouds of smoke, carved with flaring nostrils and long bushy eyebrows, wearing long flowing robes, all beneath a thirty-nine-character inscription, the reverse carved as a jagged rock face, wood stand and box. 17.7cm (7in) high (3).注脚清乾隆 青玉雕御製詩阿迎阿機達尊者山子

題贊：「龐眉皓首，赤腳露肘，一亦不立，二復何有，左執香爐，香雲無量，以拂拂之，是真供養。」

Provenance:
Christie's London, 16 May 2014, lot 1098

來源：
倫敦佳士得，2014年5月16日，拍品編號1098

The inscription may be translated as:

'Arhat Angada
Huge eyebrows and bright head, barefoot and exposing the elbows
One would not stand, what about two?
The left hand holding an incense burner, with infinite incense
Sweeping the incense with the whisk, it is true worship'.

The depiction of the luohan holding the incense burner in the present lot may be identified as Angada, one of the Sixteen Luohans. The inscription was recorded in the Yu zhi wen chu ji or Anthology of the Emperor's Writings First Edition, vol.28, which was published in the 43th year of the Qianlong reign (corresponding to 1778).

The present lot belongs to an important group of related imperial jade carvings carved with a luohan in a mountain grotto. The subject matter may have derived from a woodblock print on the theme, printed in the 18th century catalogue Gu yu tu pu (古玉圖譜), attributed to Southern Song dynasty, which was originally derived from an arhat painting by Lu Lengjia (active 730-760). Buddhism as the foremost state religion during the Qing dynasty received great attention during the reign of the Qianlong emperor. The emperor ordered the court painter Ding Guanpeng (1708-1771) to paint the sixteen luohans after the original set by Guanxiu (823-912) that he had seen during his visit to Hangzhou in 1757, where the subject matter of this lot may also have derived from.

For related examples of jade 'luohan boulders carved with inscriptions, see one from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, with the inscription denoting the luohan Cūdapanthaka, illustrated in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Qing Court, Taipei, 1997, p.148, fig.43; another example is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware (II), Shanghai, 2008, p.60, no.46; see also a further example in the British Museum, London, illustrated by J.Rawson, Chinese Jade: From the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p.410, fig.1; and one inscribed and carved with the luohan Kanaka, 18th century, from the Heber R. Bishop collection, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc.no.02.18.640).

青玉質，略帶黃皮，山石用刀深斧，嶙峋削壁，正面浮雕羅漢回首，長眉垂胸，右手執浮塵，左手提蓮辦行爐，爐飄芝雲，衣帶飄颺，如有風動。山子底穿兩孔，或為固定之用。

乾隆一朝以丁觀鵬所繪十六羅漢組圖為藍本製作的十六羅漢玉雕頗夥，而形制大同小異：山額鐫銘，正中鑿龕，其內圓雕羅漢一軀。 丁觀鵬曾繪製多套十六羅漢像，乾隆所題御製詩亦各不同，主要有兩個版本：一為丁觀鵬根據盧楞迦《羅漢》筆意所繪，《清檔》有明確記載乾隆帝交代丁觀鵬以此風格作圖，原文為：「乾隆二十一年四月，（如意館）二十一日接得員外郎郎正培催總德魁押帖一件，內開：本月十九日太監胡世傑持來盧楞迦羅漢一幅，傳旨：著丁觀鵬倣此畫筆意，各按次序，用白絹畫十六羅漢十六幅，每幅長二尺八寸，寬一尺八寸，起稿呈覽。欽此。於閏九月二十日畫得。」見《清宮內務府造辦處檔案總匯》，北京，2005年，第21，頁639；二則是以杭州聖因寺所藏唐代貫休（823-912年）繪《十六應真像》之石刻為藍本，此版本風格的玉雕羅漢山子較之前者遠為多見。

與本件玉雕羅漢形象最似的繪本為瀋陽故宮所藏丁觀鵬《佛及羅漢像十七軸》之「第一阿迎阿機達尊者」，提爐形象和題跋詩文和本件玉雕羅漢高度吻合，此版本即為《清檔》記載的盧楞迦《羅漢》風格。繪本署年「乾隆丙子冬十月」，即乾隆二十一年（1756年），那麼此件玉雕羅漢或作於1756年之後。此件山子崖首陰刻乾隆帝御製四言頌贊：「龐眉皓首，赤腳露肘，一亦不立，二復何有，左執香爐，香雲無量，以拂拂之，是真供養。」此贊亦載於《御製文初集》，見《欽定四庫全書薈要》集部，卷二八，乾隆四十三年（1778年），僅見題於盧楞迦《羅漢》筆意的十六羅漢像上。

兩岸故宮目前所藏玉雕羅漢山子俱以仿貫休風格的組畫為根據，可參考其形制，如台北故宮所藏一件玉雕租查巴納塔嘎尊者山子，見《宮廷之雅：清代仿古及畫意玉器特展圖錄》，台北，1997年，頁148，圖43；北京故宮藏一件御題詩羅漢贊山子，見《故宮博物院藏文物珍品大系·玉器（下）》，上海，2008年，頁60，圖版46。海外所藏類似玉雕羅漢山子亦是貫休風格，尚不見盧楞迦風格之他例，可參考大英博物館藏一件玉雕拔嘎沽拉尊者山子，見J. Rawson，《Chinese Jade: from the Neolithic to the Qing》，倫敦，1995年，頁410，圖1；紐約大都會博物館藏一件玉雕嘎納嘎拔哈喇尊者山子，亦資參考，館藏編號02.18.640。