Mark Rasmussen
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Lot 3043
A THANGKA OF KHASARPANA LOKESHVARA CENTRAL TIBET, LHASA STYLE, 18TH CENTURY
19 March 2018, 15:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$37,500 inc. premium
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A THANGKA OF KHASARPANA LOKESHVARA
CENTRAL TIBET, LHASA STYLE, 18TH CENTURY
Distemper on cloth; with original silk mounts.
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61514
Image: 27 1/2 x 18 3/4 in. (70.6 x 46 cm);
With Silks: 45 3/4 x 30 1/2 in. (114.6 x 78.2 cm)
Distemper on cloth; with original silk mounts.
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61514
Image: 27 1/2 x 18 3/4 in. (70.6 x 46 cm);
With Silks: 45 3/4 x 30 1/2 in. (114.6 x 78.2 cm)
Footnotes
西藏中部 拉薩風格 十八世紀 達賴喇嘛源流 靜息觀音唐卡
The beautiful painting of white Khasaparna Lokeshvara depicts the large central figure seated in an elegant lalita pose above soft, pink lotus petals and beneath the boughs of a gnarled fruit tree. With ice-capped mountains descending into fresh pools of water in the far distance, the bodhisattva dwells in a paradisiacal landscape, joined by an attendant who offers him a tray of fruit, Shadbhuja Mahakala, the Gelug's principal protector at the bottom, and Buddhas Amitabha and Shakyamuni resting on the clouds above.
The painting is rendered in the Lhasa court style with its rich blue skies, bold opaque halos, and overall preference for symmetry – seen here balancing the composition with silhouettes of Mahakala on the left and the lotus borne offering on the right. The landscape is executed with a clear structure, and the figures are well integrated. Compare with other paintings in the Lhasa court style sold by Bonhams, New York, 17 March 2014, lot 41; and 14 March 2016, lot 59.
This thangka would have been the first in a set depicting the various incarnations of the Dalai Lama as famously designed in woodblock prints at Narthang monastery, Central Tibet, in the 17th century. The Palace Museum, Beijing, houses a complete set, with a composition identical to the present lot's (Zangchuan fojiao tangka - Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji, Hong Kong, 2006, pp.10-23, nos.7-19). Other sets and dispersed thangkas derived from these woodblocks are also preserved at Drepung Monastery in Lhasa and Spituk Monastery in Ladakh. A later, 19th-century example of this composition is in the Rubin Museum of Art (HAR#196). The present lot compares favorably to other known examples grouped on HAR set no.5152. Also compare this painting's richness of color and confidence of line to a later c.1800 thangka of the Fifth Dalai Lama from an equivalent set sold at Bonhams, New York, 14 March 2016, lot 48, and two c.1900 thangkas of the Fourth and Fifth Dalai Lamas sold at Bonhams, London, 11 May 2017, lot 23.
Provenance
Private New York Collection, acquired at auction in Germany, late 1990s