Page 60 - Blum Feinstein Tanka collection HIMALAYAN Art Bonhams March 20 2024

723
A THANGKA OF SAHASRABHUJA LOKESHVARA
TIBET, 16TH/17TH CENTURY
Distemper and gold on cloth.
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 1873
Image: 32 x 27 in. (81.3 x 68.6 cm)

$15,000 - 20,000

西藏 十六/十七世紀 十一面千手觀音唐卡

This painting of Avalokiteshvara Sahasrabhuja Ekadasamukha envisions him as the
All Seeing, All Encompassing Lord with One Thousand Hands and Eleven Faces,
whose compassionate gaze extends to every corner of the world. Drawing on
an iconographic vocabulary of many heads and arms to confer his far-reaching
supremacy over the cosmos, this form of Avalokiteshvara models the deity with
benign features except for the penultimate wrathful head. Here, he is joined by
bodhisattvas, lamas from the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, King Songtsen
Gampo who is regarded as a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, and the Thirty-Five
Confession Buddhas who occupy the painting’s entire border. This present work,
although later in attribution, follows in the style of early Tibetan thangkas which
were in turn modeled after paintings from northeastern India. Compare with two
other examples, one of which is in private hands (HAR 61313) and another is in the
Rubin Museum of Art, New York (P1995.24.1; HAR 190).

Provenance
Acquired before 2018

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