Five Hundred Arhats No.215 · The Venerable Flame-Body | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.215 The Venerable Flame-Body

'Flame-body' means flames issuing from the body, the fire-light samādhi in which wisdom-fire burns the fuel of affliction and bodily radiance blazes like a flame; the name marks one refined by wisdom-fire, his bodily light ablaze. The venerable has a dynamic posture and a blazing expression, possessing the fire-light samādhi, wisdom-flame consuming delusion, a form whose light blazes like a leaping flame.

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