
Dora Tan
Head of Sale, Specialist
This auction has ended. View lot details



US$20,000 - US$30,000
Our Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialist
Head of Sale, Specialist

International Director
西藏 約十八世紀 釋迦牟尼本生故事唐卡
This painting belongs to a set of eleven thangkas depicting Buddha's past lives, known as the Jataka tales. Many versions of the jatakas have been compiled over the centuries. The current painting is based on the literary work of the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (1284-1339), who added sixty-seven stories to the original thirty-four from the Indian text Jatakamala to form a collection known as the One Hundred Previous Life Stories.
The artist has deftly composed ten episodes proceeding counterclockwise across five horizontal registers surrounding a glowing central image of Buddha Shakyamuni. Each vignette is meticulously illustrated and identified by inscriptions and numbers. The vignette in the upper left corner depicts story number 31 (Sutasoma) from Rangjung Dorje's collection, followed, counter-clockwise, by number 32 (Prince of the Iron House), number 33 (The Buffalo), number 34 (The Woodpecker), number 35 (Lion King), number 36 (Great Diligence), number 37 (The Golden King), number 38 (The Horse), number 39 (The King with Strength in Merit), and finally, number 40 (Bhikshu Marvelous Light) in the upper right corner.
Unlike most jataka paintings, where narrative stories stray across a contiguous landscape, the use of clearly divided rectangular sections and multiple skylines seen here is rather rare, and almost prefigures the graphic novel. Another painting from the same set is in the Zimmerman Family Collection (Pal, Art of the Himalayas, 1991, no.101).
Published:
Melissa Kerin, Artful Beneficence: Highlights from the David R. Nalin Himalayan Art Collection, New York, 2009, no.60.
Exhibited:
Artful Beneficence: Highlights from the David R. Nalin Himalayan Art Collection, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 12 June – 9 November 2009.
Provenance:
Ex-David R. Nalin Collection