Description

Wu bai Luohan tu (Portraits of 500 arhats), written and inscribed by Emperor Gaozong (1711‒99), reign title Qianlong (reigned 1736‒96), was originally a painting by Wang Fangyue. Wang Fangyue, born in Wuxi, Jiangsu, was a court painter during Emperor Qianlong’s reign, and excelled in figure and landscape painting. An arhat is someone who has reached true enlightenment (nirvana). The entire painting is divided into ten sections, each section assigned in order with one of the names of the ten heavenly stems (days in a calendrical cycle). Each ...