Five Hundred Arhats No.473 · The Venerable Blazing Sublimity | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.473 The Venerable Blazing Sublimity

'Blazing sublimity' means wisdom ablaze, sublime virtue flaming like a great mass of fire brightly burning, breaking every dark hindrance with blazing sublime wisdom; the name marks one whose wisdom-fire blazes with subtle light. The venerable makes a flaming gesture with a radiant look, possessing the radiance of ablaze wisdom, flaming sublime virtue, wisdom-fire breaking dark, illumining all dharmas with blazing sublime wisdom.

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