Five Hundred Arhats No.216 · The Venerable Bhāradvāja | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.216 The Venerable Bhāradvāja

Bhāradvāja (also rendered Bharadvāja) is a great ancient Brahmin clan of India, several of whose members renounced and realized the fruit in the Buddha's time; listed among the five hundred arhats, the name signifies one of high birth who left the worldly to realize the true. The venerable appears as an Indian monk with a dignified look, recorded objectively without inventing deeds, conveying only the bearing of leaving the worldly and realizing the fruit with gravity.

Painted by Li Zongyi in the freehand Chinese ink (xieyi) tradition, the brushwork is fluent and the ink tones layered from dense to pale, capturing the arhat’s spirit in a few assured strokes. The blank paper itself breathes Zen; figure and spirit are one, blending monastic solemnity with the literati’s ease. Each of the Five Hundred Arhats bears its own name and practice, uniting faith, art and collectibility — an original, non-reproducible hand-painted work.

Size: approx. 100×50cm (4.5 square chi) | Traditional hand-painted Chinese ink Zen Buddhist figure painting | On paper