Page 50 - Ming Porcelain Sothebys march 2018

48 SOTHEBY’S NEW YORK 20 MARCH 2018 MING: LUMINOUS DAWN OF EMPIRE

!"# PROPERTY FROM AN EAST COAST
PRIVATE COLLECTION
AN EMBROIDERED SILK THANGKA
DEPICTING VAJRASATTVA AND
PRAJNAPARAMITA
MING DYNASTY, YONGLE PERIOD

nely embroidered in silk and gold thread on a rich silk background,
the bodhisattva Vajrasattva in ecstatic union with the female consort
Prajnaparamita, both wearing the regal jewels and accoutrements of the
bodhisattva, Vajrasattva holding an upright vajra or scepter in the right
hand and a ghanta or bell in the left hand, seated at center on a square
platform atop a tiered and richly embellished double-lotus throne, the
throne face adorned with a pair of addorsed vyalaka or leogryphs and
covered in a textile festooned with golden garlands, the deities within a
golden prabha or halo with luxuriant foliate motif, the upper quadrants of
the thangka depicting two unidenti ed gures and further surmounted
by Garuda and celestial beings at upper center, with a further menagerie
of addorsed fantastic beasts on either side of the divine couple including
makara spouting jeweled garlands, vyala, snow lions and elephants
all atop small lotus thrones within a eld of rolling clouds and rocky
escarpments, the upper and lower trapezoidal mounts embroidered with
a vajra and triple gem border motif, further embellished with ten rows of
red lotus buds with interconnected scrolling stems, each bud inscribed
with a contiguous syllable of the one-hundred-syllable Vajrasattva
mantra of supplication in Sanskritized Tibetan script heightened in gold
52 by 35 in., 132.1 by 88.9 cm

PROVENANCE
Rossi & Rossi, London, 2003.
EXHIBITED
Buddhist Art: Sculpture and Paintings from India, Nepal and Tibet, Rossi
& Rossi, London, 1999, cat. no. 10.
LITERATURE
Michael Henss, ‘The Woven Image: Tibeto-Chinese Textile Thangkas of
the Yuan and Early Ming Dynasties’, Orientations, vol. 28, no. 10, 1997,
p. 29, g. 5.

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$ 400,000-600,000