Knee Raised, Something Pinched

Viewing notes

A viewer's written impression — not a buyer review or first-hand record

This copper-toned seated figure is an arhat-like elder caught mid-amusement. Bald and white-bearded, he sits sidelong on a rock with one knee cocked high, his right hand raised beside his ear, a slender little object pinched between his fingers; his head tips to one side and his mouth opens in a grin, as if he had just heard something funny. His chest is bare, ribs rising faintly beneath the skin. The long robe has slipped from his shoulders to his waist; the remaining cloth pours in layered folds over the raised knee and spreads in slow pleats across the rock, one cloth shoe peeking out beneath the hem. No aureole, no lotus throne — only a stubborn rock and a lean old frame, which makes the expression livelier still. A statue that stands on no ceremony, it belongs in a study or a tea room, relaxing along with its owner.