Footnotes

西藏 十八世紀 釋迦牟尼唐卡

Provenance:
Private UK Collection, acquired in the 1990s

Verso with a lengthy Sanskrit inscription written in Tibetan vartu script in black ink of vivifying, wealth, and long-life mantras and the Buddhist creed, all composed within a red ink stupa:

Om Sarva Vidhya Svaha! Om Sarva Vidhya Svaha! Om Sarva Vidhya Svaha!
Om Vajra Ayiushe Svaha! Om Vajra Ayiushe Svaha! Om Vajra Ayiushe Svaha! Om Vajra Ayiushe Svaha! Om Vajra Ayiushe Svaha! Om Vajra Ayiushe Svaha!
Tayatha Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Shakya Muniye Svaha!
Tayatha Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Shakya Muniye Svaha!
Tayatha Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Shakya Muniye Svaha!
Tayatha Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Shakya Muniye Svaha!
Tayatha Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Shakya Muniye Svaha!
Tayatha Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Shakya Muniye Svaha!
Tayatha Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Shakya Muniye Svaha!
Om Amarani Jivandehi Svaha!
OM AMARANI JIVANDEHI SVAHA
om namo bhagawate aparimita ayurjnana subinischita tejo rajaya | tathagataya arhate samyaksambuddhaya | tadyatha om punye punye maha punye | aparimita punye aparimita punya jnana sambharo pachite | om sarva samskara parishuddha dharmate gagana samudgate svabhava vishuddhe mahanaya parivare svaha
Om A AA, I II, U UU, Ri Rii, Li Lii, E Ai, Am Ah, Sva Ha,
Ka Kha Gha Ga Nga, Tsa Tsha Za zha nya, Ta Tha Da Dha Na, Ta tha da dha Na, Pa Pha Ba Bha ma, Ya ra la wa, sa ka sha ha, cha tra
ye dharma hetuprabhava hetum tesam tathagato hyavadat, tesam ca yo nirodha evaṃvadi mahashra manah, Om Zambha lha Dza len dayi sva ha, Om Supratishtha Vajra Ye sva ha!
Sarva Mangalam!
Followed by the 'Patience Prayer', bottom center, inscribed in Tibetan:
Bzod pa dka' thub bzod pa dam pa ni/ Mya ngan 'das pa mchog ces sangs rgyas gsungs/ Rab tu byung ba gzhan la gnod pa dang / Gzhan la 'tshe ba dge sbyong ma yin no/

Patience is the supreme ascetic practice, patience is supreme nirvana, said the Buddha(s). The renunciate who harms another and who injures another is no Sramana (Buddhist ascetic).

The Sage of the Sakyas
Written in collaboration with Jeff Watt and Karma Gellek, November 2022 (abridged)

This remarkable thangka of Shakyamuni Buddha is executed with astonishing detail and a brilliant vibrant palette that ranks among the highest level of Tibetan painting from any school or period. The strict quality of line and exacting technical execution are peered with imperial works produced for the Qing court and those sent to the emperors as gifts. In fact, the closest known comparison to this painting is a gift from a leader of the Gelug order to the Qianlong emperor (r. 1722-97), now preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing (fig. 1; HAR 34756). Like it, the present thangka primarily follows in the Khyen-ri painting tradition that originated with the visionary artist Khyentse Chenmo in Central Tibet in the 15th century, though this painting also has a background characteristic of 18th-century Eastern Tibetan painting. Despite the numerous inscriptions on the front and back of this masterpiece, neither the artist nor his patron are mentioned. However, there can be little doubt that the work was sponsored by a prominent patron or monastery, with stylistic evidence indicating a close association with the scroll paintings of Palpung monastery and the painted murals of the Jonang Puntsog Ling, which flourished under one of Tibet's great polymaths, Taranatha (1575-1634).

The artist's refrain from landscape elements in this painting's minimalist background concentrates the viewer's attention on the glorious architecture and details of the throne, the shrine placed before it, and the great sage seated on it.

Prominently situated at the center of the foreground is an elaborate, red-lacquered shrine table in the shape of an official's wide-brimmed hat, constructed as an openwork dome revealing four orange struts. This rarely seen object is also found in an opulent thangka of Vajradhara produced in the Khenri style for the Jonang order (HAR 7692), although it is not as pronounced or elaborate in that example. The 'hat's' finial takes the form of a large lotus pad on which are placed a golden lion ornament, a ritual conch, and a gem-filled alms bowl raised on a quadrupedal base. Either side of the shrine table is a pair of pink lotuses supporting a Chinese golden incense burner and a bowl of speckled persimmons.

One of the most charismatic nuances of this extraordinary painting is the pair of well-coiffed lions guarding the lower section of the Buddha's throne. Specifically, the lion on the viewer's right redirects his typical line of sight away from the Buddha, instead engaging the viewer with an almost debonair manner. Such a departure from convention bespeaks the sheer confidence of this artist, and the only known thangka to share this striking detail is the aforementioned in the Palace Museum (fig. 1). Elsewhere, the base of the Buddha's lotus throne is painted with exquisite panache. The lower portion of the rectangular plinth is obscured by a pair of lotus-borne bodhisattvas, but the top is encrusted with colored gems set into quatrefoil gilded settings, and the center is overlaid by a fine red and blue silk throne cover of golden phoenixes and a surrounding arabesque of lotus flowers. Immediately above that, Shakyamuni's lotus pedestal has multilayered petals of shaded blue, green, and pink with the innermost crinkling into a trefoil frame from the heat of the flaming lotus-borne gem it encloses. This fabulous element can be seen on one other thangka (albeit a faint shadow of the design), formerly in the R. H. Ellsworth Collection, which depicts Vajradhara (Rhie & Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion, 1991, p. 358, no. 148). A mural painting of Buddha on the third floor of the Puntsog Ling also renders this concept of diminutive lotuses housed within larger petals (HAR 62429).

The throneback, or prabhamandala, has a stack of mythical creatures rising up the sides, painted with such ingenuity that one would hardly know that they were iconographically prescribed. Note, for instance, the bejeweled elephant on the viewer's right struggling slightly more than his counterpart to balance the shifting weight of the lion above him. On top of the lions, handsome pale-blue dragons (sharabha ) are ridden by Chinese-styled young boys that hold up the projecting ridge of the throne. The sequence continues with pale-green winged makaras whose tails issue a mass of orange foliate scrolls, heightened with gold, vibrating against a faint line of blue mist. Two well-nourished garland bearers nestled within the vines orient their bifurcation upwards, where a pair of naginis propitiate the stalwart Garuda guarding the Buddha from up high. The parasol surmounting the throne has a tiered, faceted structure with long red streamers cascading from each corner and an enflamed triratna crowning it. The clouds, rendered with gold trimming and rainbow bands extending in two tips to each side, neatly frame the parasol.

These meticulous details and the technical precision of the throne's architecture can be compared to the finest Chinese imperial commissions of painting and porcelain during the 17th and 18th centuries. Moreover, a strong affinity with the material culture of the Qing dynasty is displayed throughout this painting. For example, the layering of elements, exacting scrollwork, and phoenixes are redolent of a Qianlong yangcai "phoenix scene" revolving vase now in the Lin Jian Wei Collection, Singapore (Raski & Rawson, China, The Three Emperors, 1662-1795, London, 2006, p. 297, no. 222). Behind the present thangka's central Buddha, the throne is also backed by a pale-pink cloth with multi-colored ruyi-shaped clouds that resemble a textile fragment preserved in the Capital Museum, Beijing (Mei & Tao, Textiles and Embroideries, Beijing, 1999, p. 168, no. 127). The floral clusters ornamenting the Buddha's green nimbus and blue aureole also draw from a leitmotif in fine Qing textiles, reams of which were dispatched by the emperors to prominent Tibetan monasteries within the web of gift exchange that reinforced their diplomatic relations and likely also provided the context for this painting's creation.

The known thangka most closely related to this painting resides in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and is believed to have been a gift from the Third Panchen Lama, Lobzang Palden Yeshe (1738-80) to the Qianlong emperor (r. 1722-97) (fig. 1). Described as "an understated tour de force", it is the central Shakyamuni painting of a Sixteen Arhat set (Jackson, A Revolutionary Artist of Tibet, New York, 2018, p. 241). Comparisons between it and the present painting abound. In addition to the eccentric treatment of one of the lions already mentioned, there is a resemblance among the offerings laid out on the shrine tables and the gilded platforms they rest upon. The components of either throne also mirror one another, while offering distinct variations on a whimsical characteristic of Khyen-ri painting, which is to compose a little asymmetry within the ornate throne backs (ibid., p. 242); the boys riding the dragons look in different directions. Another shared feature continued from Khyentse Chenmo's work is the strap and clasp used to secure the Buddha's robe over one shoulder. This can be traced back to the artist's revolutionary murals at Gongkar Chode monastery in Central Tibet, which established his eponymous painting tradition (ibid., p. 223, fig. 9.2).

See this lot's dedicated printed catalog for the full version of this essay.