Footnotes

西藏 十八世紀 因竭陀尊者唐卡

Surrounded within a paradisical landscape replete with fruit-bearing trees, thriving wildflowers, and fresh, flowing water is Angaja, the first of the Sixteen Arhats, and a direct disciple of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. Also known as, 'The Elder,' Angaja displays his two primary attributes: an incense bowl and a fly whisk, both suspended by the chains of a golden staff he playfully balances between his fingertips. With his back turned to the snow-capped peaks of Mount Kailasha, he sits on an elaborate wooden throne while a monk offers him a lapis-blue alms bowl with ripened peaches.

This Angaja is from a set dedicated to the Sixteen Arhats of which at least five other paintings are known, similarly honoring each central subject with a complexion of gold. These others are Arhat Pantaka (HAR 21658); Arhat Kalika (HAR 24651); Arhat Nagasena (HAR 36291); Arhat Kanakavatsa (HAR 36292); and Arhat Bakula (HAR 36293). Among this group, the Angaja is one of the best, excelling for the charismatic wizened portrait and posture of the arhat, as well as for its excellent condition.

The artist painting this thangka and its set employs a creative mix of styles typically associated with different regions. For example, the deep blue sky, the oversized persimmons obscuring it, and the clouds hugging the mountain peaks represent borrowings from Tsangri styles of West-Central Tibet, where these features are perhaps best known in paintings from Tashilhunpo monastery (HAR set no. 2989). The gold-lined, blue-and-green rockwork forming unlikely cliffs and hilltops incorporates some of the 'New Menri' style associated with the environs of Lhasa, Central Tibet. The shaded green halo and grand red-and-gold throne, which is redolent of both Chinese lacquerware and Newari scrollwork, are inspired by the Kham-dri styles of Eastern Tibet. Moreover, the most telling clue of where this set may have been produced is perhaps the red sun and the full moon in the top corners, which follow an East Tibetan mode of representing these celestial bodies, compared with a yellow sun and crescent moon in Central Tibet. Whether a result of the artist wishing to showcase his knowledge and mastery of the various traditions, or as an homage to the many styles of 18th-century Tibetan scroll painting, the result is a vivid, dreamlike visage of an otherworldly paradise where Arhat Angaja resides with deserving blissful contentment for the wisdom he perfected under the Buddha's instruction and the compassion he showed in its further spread.

Provenance:
Acquired in the early 20th century, by repute
Ferri-Drouot, Paris, 26 June 2015, lot 126