Immortal Lü Dongbin with Sword

Professional painters from the Ningbo region in eastern China specialized in depicting Buddhist figures commissioned by monasteries in China and abroad since the Song dynasty. During the Ming period, they began to paint even more figures of the Chinese syncretic pantheon, including the Eight Immortals. This painting depicting one of them, Immortal Lü Dongbin, was most likely made in a professional workshop in eastern China. Lü Dongbin, rendered in the meticulous technique known as laborious brush whose lavish colors are typical in the work of professional painters, according to different sources lived during the Tang or Song dynasty. He became famous for his antics while trying to demonstrate supernatural powers. His attribute is the flying sword called Blue Dragon, and the pine tree under which he is situated here is a common symbol of longevity.