Five Hundred Arhats No.354 · The Venerable Moon Canopy | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.354 The Venerable Moon Canopy

'Moon canopy' means taking the pure moon as a canopy, shading like the moon, covering beings with coolness; the moon is cool wisdom and the canopy compassionate protection; the name marks one who covers beings with the cool moon-wisdom. The venerable makes a sheltering gesture with a cool look, possessing the coolness of the moon-canopy's shelter, the cool wisdom-moon, compassionate shade, shielding beings with the pure virtue of the moon.

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