Overview

This work is composed of two scrolls in which nine arhats (Buddhist enlightened beings) with mandorlas. Originally, this may have been a set of four scrolls with sixteen or eighteen arhats. The daunting facial expression seen in Yuan paintings has somewhat weaked, revealing a transition in style. The surroundings display auspicious vegetation, such as pines, bamboo, and plum trees, along side mountains and rocks, which are rendered with sweeping contour brushstrokes reminiscent of Zhe school of painting. The British Museum has a painting resembling the left scroll, leading to the conclusion that many such paintings may have been produced in a single studio using the same model, although extant arhat paintings from this period are few.