Page 94 - Christie's Inidian and HImalayan Works of Art, March 2019

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE WEST COAST COLLECTION
666
A RARE BLACK GROUND PAINTING OF
MAHAKALA PANJARNATA
TIBET, 18TH CENTURY
33 x 21¿ in. (83.8 x 56.2 cm.)
$250,000-350,000

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Australia, by repute

Fire surrounds a dwarfsh and big-bellied Black Lord of the Pavilion, who The beauty and grandeur of the present painting, however, is not all contained
stands upon a prostrate human fgure pinned down atop a lotus throne, within the central fgure. This dynamic composition is a result of creative and
which is barely visible through the masses of carefully-shaped fames that expertly-painted details flling each and every space between the wrathful
encircle each of the retinue fgures who surround him. The viewer’s attention retinue of fgures: animals emerge between fames, miniature necromancers,
is directly drawn to the bright white teeth that protrude in a ferce manner monks, and warriors appear in small vignettes, and implements among a feast
from the gaping red mouth of the deity and his three bulging red-tinged eyes. of gruesome oferings fll the bottom of the canvas, all in harmony with the
Atop his head sits a crown with fve jewels and fve smiling human skulls. His terrifc mood of the painting. The artist of the present work managed to ft
wild gold hair is topped with a vajra and tied with a small serpent resembling an extraordinary volume of fgures, fames, symbols, and ritual representations
the one delicately-rendered around his belly. His heavy gold eyebrows and into the composition, and the black ground creates an all-pervasive dark
tufts of facial hair resemble his jewelry in their spiraling designs. The fnely space from which these forms emerge and coalesce. The sheer number of
painted details of the jewelry, bone ornaments, protective staf, curved knife, elements packed into the painting and precision with which the mass of details
blood-flled skull cup, and tiger-skin, were all clearly executed with the fnest is executed unquestionably makes this painting worthy of display among
brush. Mahakala’s garland of ffty severed human heads is also rendered with Tibetan masterworks.
incredible detail, each expression distinct from the next and each hair defned.
Compare these details to those in an example of Panjarnata Mahakala in the
Rubin Museum of Art (see fgure a).

Figure a: Panjarnatha Mahakala, Central Tibet;
early 18th century, ca. 1720, Pigments on cloth,
Rubin Museum of Art, C2001.1.4 (HAR 65004)
92