Page 102 - Christie's Inidian and HImalayan Works of Art, March 2019

The present painting was likely painted in the imperial workshops of Beijing Mahayana schools as well as later Vajrayana Buddhist traditions. The jeweled
for the decoration of the new Xumi Fushou Temple. The set was subsequently mandorla, ornate lotus throne, pastel palette, and three-lobed style of clouds
dispersed, and many are now found in museums and private collections. closely matches that of examples directly attributed by inscription to the Xumi
Paintings of Samantabhadra and the Buddha Ratnasambhava (fgure a), Fushou Temple while the ornamented trees and the cluster of jewels that sit
both from the Xumi Fushou Temple, reside in the Asian Art Museum of before the medicine buddha refect the Tibetan infuence on this iconography.
San Francisco, while The Philadelphia Museum of Art retains a painting of Blue and green clifs in a classic Chinese style give way to waterfalls that fow
Sitatapatra (acc. no. 1959-156-4) and a painting of an unidentifed bodhisattva into the body of water from which a lotus emerges with open petals, topped
(acc. no. 1959-156-5). Two paintings from the same set were sold at Christie’s with sense oferings in the form of a conch shell flled with perfume, cymbals,
New York on 12 September 2018, including fgure b, a painting of Amitabha and a mirror. White Tara and Green Tara sit upon lotuses foating over the
(lot 316) and a painting of the bodhisattva Vajraraksha (lot 315). The painting of landscape, while the celestial appearance of Amitayus hovers in the sky above,
Samantabhadra in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco has an inscription surrounded by dakinis making oferings to the bodhisattvas. The fowers that
stating that it was destined for the Xumi Fushou temple, and indicates its descend from their baskets disappear within the green clouds that fll the
location within the building. space around Amitabha at the center.

Suvarnabhadra Vimala is one of the eight medicine buddhas identifed in the Himalayan Art Resources (himalayanart.org), item no. 24509.
Bhaishajyaguruvaiduryaprabharaja Sutra, a sutra of great importance to early

Figure a: The cosmic Buddha Ratnasambhava, 1700-1800. China; Chengde, Hebei Figure b: Christie’s New York, 12 September 2018, lot 316, sold for $162,500
Province. Ink and color on cotton. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, gift of John
Sheldon Osborne, B83D6. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco