Page 112 - Himalayan Art Macrh 19 2018 Bonhams

3043
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)

$30,000 - 50,000

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

110 | BONHAMS