Les Seize Arhat dans la peinture chinoise (VIIIe-Xe s.) et les collections japonaises : prémices iconographiques et stylistiques

摘要

On the basis of written sources and the analyses of painted scrolls selected from Chinese and Japanese collections, this article seeks to define the stylistic and iconographie origins of the Sixteen Arhat motif in Buddhist painting between the eighth and tenth centuries. From the work of Lu Lengjia it can be seen that paintings of arhats in series of sixteen, treated in the genre of portraits of eminent Buddhist monks, are attested already in the middle of eighth century. Because of intense demand and whidespread diffusion of the genre, primarily for religious reasons, arhat paintings become very diversified by the beginning of the tenth century. Two separate traditions dominate : the "non-narrative" current is characterized by minimalist composition and the "narrative" one by a detailed environment containing arhats of a very human type, as painted in the work of Zhang Xuan (active ca 910). The monk Guanxiu (839-912), who in the following centuries became the major reference in the field of arhat painting, developed three styles : realist, but above all grotesque and simplified, as we can see in the complete series kept in the Japanese Imperial Household collections. Steles, xylographies and literary descriptions all contributed to the transmission of Guanxiu's styles. The similarity of detail between his arhat and those of Seiryoji and Kodaiji, as well as those of Liu Songnian (ca 1207), show his enduring influence throughout the Song. The addition of two arhats would appear to be a simple incoherence rather than a deliberate creation : a result of the copying process stimulated by the magical function attributed to Guanxiu's paintings.