Artists › Sculptors
Liu Luan
Yuan court sculptor, called Liu Yuan in the Yuan History, who learned Nepalese-Tibetan image-making from Anige and rose to Hanlin rank
In an open-air carving yard before a lake and hills, a heap of rough white stone blocks rises at the left, a mat holds a mallet and a row of chisels, unfinished horse figures stand at both sides, a small seated figure sits on a table, and a mason sits among the blocks.
Also known as Also written Liu Yuan · Zi Bingyuan
- Roles
- Sculptors
Liu Luan is the Liu Yuan of the Yuan History, courtesy name Bingyuan, from Baodi in Ji prefecture. He began as a Daoist, learning a range of crafts under the Daoist registrar Qi of Qingzhou, and then studied the Indo-Tibetan image style under the Nepalese master Anige; in the Zhiyuan era many clay, cast-metal and dry-lacquer images in the great temples of both Yuan capitals were his work, including the Rensheng emperor and his attendants at the Dongyue Temple in Dadu. Under Renzong he rose to grand academician of the Zhaowen Institute and director of the Palace Library, and died in old age. The Yuan clay figures of the twenty-eight lunar mansions at the Jade Emperor Temple of Fucheng in Jincheng are locally attributed to him.
Life and times
Dates Dates uncertain (by one account c. 1240–1324); active from Khubilai's reign to Renzong's