Five Hundred Arhats No.112 · The Venerable Golden Foremost | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.112 The Venerable Golden Foremost

'Golden foremost' says the virtue of a leader is precious as true gold, whose nature does not change and grows purer through refining, likening a resolve for the way that stays firm and truer through aeons; the name marks one pre-eminent in the community, whose virtue is fine gold. The venerable looks grave and steady, possessing the purity and weight of true gold and the noble marks of one fit to lead.

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