Page 46 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

Maras by two rabbits placed beneath the paws of the to finish being just a mechanical repetition of motions
tiger and two small men being trodden down by the expended on innumerable paintings before. Although
Mongol. Another famous symbolic painting was the some Westerners find this aspect of Tibetan painting
"Emblem of Manjusri" (jam dpal phyag mtshan ri strange and even a little repugnant, such close adherence
mo, sometimes also referred to as Sdom brtson dam by the artist to his traditiori guaranteed the continuity
pal, originally painted on one of the walls of the Samye and religious authenticity of Tibetan art.
complex by Sa-skya Pan~ita (1182-1251/2). The Yet even with the prev'liling limitations on
detailed symbolism of this painting included the rep- individual expression a few master artists were more
resentation of the great king Khri-srong-lde'u-btsan by a than mere copiers and craftsmen, and in their work one
flaming sword, Padmasambhava by a lotus, the two great gets glimpses of the creativity and imagination possible
Indian masters Kamalasila and Santarak~ita by the two- within the tradition. Painters could express a creative
headed yellow water fowl, and the great translators bent most obviously in the types of composition that
Ska-ba Dpal-brtsegs and Cog-ro Klu'i-rgyal-mtshan by a gave them more room to improvise, such as certain
two-headed green parrot. 7 The lake beneath the lotus biographical or narrative paintings. And even within the
was said to have been meant as an antidote to the danger set formal compositions there existed chances for an
of fire that plagued Samye. Although symbolic represen- artist to display his particular gifts, for example in the
tations seldom constituted the main content of a treatment of landscapes and miniature details. Any
thangka, they could be important elements in them. artist who had the basic skills and knowledge and in
Within the painting of the 'Wheel of Existence' for addition possessed a flair for fine depictions of facial
example, the three primary emotional poisons features and other details could easily attract a surplus
(confusion, desire and hatred) were represented by a . of commissions. The most skilled of such artists, those
black pig, red rooster and a green snake. Impermanence who could transform an ordinary composition into
was symbolized by the Lord of Death, Yama, clutching something vibrant and extraordinary, were always in
the wheel in his clawed hands, feet and teeth, and the demand. As their fame spread far and wide such gifted
twelve links of interdependent origination were pic- painters sometimes even acquired the reputation of
torially represented in the outer rim of the wheel by being "divinely emanated artisans" (sprul pa'i lha bzo).
various people and animals in different poses.

Individual Artistic Expression

Within the general framework of compositional types
and principles of design, the painter depicted most of
the particular elements in his paintings in ways that were
governed either by canonical authority or by strong
artistic tradition. Indeed, there was very little place in
the painting for individual, original creation. When a
master painter began a given painting he had very
probably painted many similar works in the past. Even
if some of the figures were new to him, he had almost
certainly executed similar compositions scores of times.
For most painters layout and composition were basically
a matter of inserting the specific elements of a new
commission into one of their familiar compositional
formulas.
Originality of conception was thus not required.
For most artists it was enough to adhere to the
paradigms and practices that they had learned from their
own teacher. The main chance for an artist to express his
own sensibilities was in the decorative parts of the
painting, such as the landscape and the details of orna-
mentation. Even there, however, his treatment often
became stereotyped. Sometimes he continued to
reproduce these details in the very way that he had
originally learned them as a novice. In extreme cases
the art of painting was reduced to faithful copying,
"composition" consisting of nothing more than the
exact reproduction of someone else's original by tracing
or pouncing, and every step of the painting from start

42 COMPOSITION