Page 66 - Blum Feinstein Tanka collection HIMALAYAN Art Bonhams March 20 2024

725
A THANGKA OF AKSHOBHYA
TIBET, 14TH/15TH CENTURY
Distemper and gold on cloth.
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 11568; 89961
Image: 27 1/4 x 17 in. (69.2 x 43.2 cm);
With cloth mounts:38 1/2 x 19 3/8 in. (97.8 x 49.2 cm)

$60,000 - 80,000

西藏 十四/十五世紀 阿閦佛唐卡

This thangka presents the crowned emanation of Akshobhya, the Immovable
One, who presides over the Vajra family of Buddhas. The elephant which serves
as his animal mount appears twice along the base of his throne and twice again
as a pair of elephant heads peer out behind the throne’s back. As the Buddha
residing within the eastern quadrant of a mandala, he is appropriately protected by
Vajrankusha, the hook-wielding guardian of the eastern gate. Also accompanying
the Tathagata is the conventional group of eight bodhisattvas as well as two
hundred identically repeating Buddhas which represent the concept of the
‘Thousand Buddhas of the Auspicious Aeon’ (bhadrakalpa).

The treatment of the figures’ noses with a single vertical line of white pigment to
accent their facial profiles has earlier precedents, as seen in 13th century paintings
of Bhaishajyaguru and Akshobhya in the Pangtha cave grottoes (Neumann and
Neumann, ‘The Wall Paintings of Pang Gra Phug: Augusto Gansser’s Cave,’ in
Orientations, June 2011, figs. 18 & 23). Supporting its attribution to the 14th/15th
centuries is its similar composition with other paintings depicting Cosmic Buddhas
and a myriad of Buddhas, including a Ratnasambhava painting sold in Bonhams,
New York, 16 March 2015, lot 20, another depicting Akshobhya from the Moke
Mokotoff Collection sold in Christie’s, New York, 26 September 2023, lot 320, and
a thangka of Amoghasiddhi in private hands (HAR 30651), whose crown type and
lower garment closely match to that of the present work.

Provenance
Private European Collection
Sotheby’s, New York, 25 March 1999, lot 67

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