Page 96 - Blum Feinstein Tanka collection HIMALAYAN Art Bonhams March 20 2024

Fig.2 Fig.3
The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara In The Form of Shadakshari Green Tara, Folio From a Dispersed Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita
Lokeshvara: Folio From a Manuscript of The Ashtasahasrika (Perfection of Wisdom) Manuscript
Prajnaparamita (Perfection Of Wisdom) India, Bengal, or Bangladesh, Early 12th Century
India, West Bengal, Or Bangladesh, Early 12th Century 2 3/4 X 16 1/2 In. (7 X 41.9 Cm)
Page: 2 3/4 X 16 7/16 In. (7 X 41.8 Cm); Image: 2 1/2 X 1 15/16 In. The Metropolitan Museum Of Art
(6.4 X 4.9 Cm) (2001.445b)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(2001.445a)

The allegory image of the Buddha positioned beneath a mango tree where the
leaves create a halo around his head, suggests the prototype for the unusual
stylistic feature along the orbs of each of these secondary figures. The long,
thin leaves with budding flowers of the manuscript page resemble the botanical
design of the leaves encircling each of minute figures. There are other examples
adapting the use of large leafed foliage in Tibetan paintings from this early period
of transmission of Indian styles, such as along the top register of the Ford Tara,
and the inclusion of budding flowers as depicted on a circa 1200 Achala, though
neither are illustrated in such a dominant size or in the manner of scrolling foliage
functioning as pictorial separators as they do here (Kossak and Singer, Sacred
Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet, 1998, p. 55, cat. 3 and p. 103, cat. 22).
As these Pala forms were copied and adopted, they accommodated a developing
Tibetan aesthetic evident as well in the lower register of the painting which features
the deities Achala, Shadakshari Lokeshvara, Tara, and Manjushri. While derivations
from Pala manuscripts are obvious, through which comparisons can be made
alongside pages from the Ashtasahariska Prajnaparamita (Figs. 2, 3,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.445a and 2001.445b), the figures also
show more reservation, more frontality, and demeanors characterized by
inward composure.

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