PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF MARK S. PRATT A PAIR OF LAPIS LAZULI 'SIXTEEN LUOHAN' TABLE SCREENSLate Qianlong to early Jiaqing period Finely carved and gold-filled with painterly outlines of sixteen figures of luohan , the ragged landscape divided by shallow brooks and gnarled trees with misty clouds drifting above, each luohan seated in meditative posture with their attributes, the back of the panels carved and gold-filled with a poem in standard script, titled Yuzhi Shiliu Luohan zan (By Imperialmand: In Praise of the Sixteen Luohan), the lapis lazuli stone mottled showing areas of gold tones and deep blue, each panel fitted with an openwork wooden stand. 6 7/8 x 7 15/16 x 1/2in (17.7 x 20.3 x 1.5cm) each; 11 7/8in (30.4cm) high, overall (2). 清乾隆晚期至嘉慶初期 青金石填金御製詩《十六羅漢贊》插屏一對 Provenance: Purchased in Qingdao, China, 1947 來源： 1947年購於中國青島 The Sixteen Luohans (Arhats) are legendary Buddhist disciples who achieved enlightenment and possess supernatural powers. The depiction of Luohans appears on a wide range of artworks and literatures throughout the history of Asian art. The most renowned and influential portrait of the group is perhaps by Guanxiu (832-912), a Five Dynasties artist and a Buddhist monk himself. His Luohan figures exhibit exaggerated physical features, satisfying the viewer's imagination of these eccentric sages. See a set of ink rubbings taken from stone steles carved in 1757 and attributed to Guanxiu, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and illustrated on the museum's , accession no. 59.195.9. As a devoted Buddhist believer, Emperor Qianlongmissioned many Buddhist-related artworks. The Sixteen Luohan was among one of his favored subjects. The sixteen poems scribed on the back of the present table screens, Yuzhi Shiliu Luohan zan (By Imperialmand: In Praise of the Sixteen Luohan) is recorded in the Qing Gaozong Yuzhi Shiwenji (A Collection of Poems and Essays by the Qianlong Emperor). pare the lapis lazuli carving of a Luohan seated in a mountain landscape, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, not only represents the same subject as the present lot, but also inscribed with a section of the imperial poem praising the Luohan, illustrated on the museum's .pare also the table screenprised of one set of white jade carvings of the subject, gold filled with the same imperial poem, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji: Ming Qing jiaju, xia , No. 54, Hong Kong, 2002, pp. 194-195.