Page 72 - Indian, Himalaya and Asian Art Bonhams Setp 2015
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A THANGKA OF A GELUGPA REFUGE FIELD A THANGKA OF WHITE TARA
Qing, 18th century Eastern Tibet, Palpung style, 19th century
Distemper on cloth; at the center of a paradisiacal landscape,
Shakyamuni is flanked by Maitreya and Manjushri, and surrounded by Her body bearing seven eyes, her hands in varada mudra and holding
groups of Gelugpa hierarchs. a limber lotus, her luxurious silks draped in rhythmic folds, her hair
Image: 23 x 18 1/4 in. (58.3 x 46.2 cm) bound within an intricate tiara, she sits within a delicately washed
$2,000 - 3,000 pureland setting with Amitabha seated above.
Image: 13 3/8 x 8 1/2 in. (34 x 21.7 cm);
清十八世紀 格魯派皈依境唐卡 With silks: 23 1/2 x 12 5/8 in. (59.7 x 32.1 cm)
$2,000 - 3,000
While others can be overcrowded, this is a very accessible 西藏東部 八蚌風格 十九世紀 白度母唐卡
composition of a refuge field thangka (also called a “Field of the
Accumulation of Merit” thangka). Tsongkhapa and his lineage are This elegant thangka bears the hallmarks of the Palpung style developed
grouped symmetrically on separate cloud banks. Contrast with others by Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne (1700-1774). Compare the minimalist
sold at Chrisite’s, New York, 21 September 2007, lot 1878; and treatment in a thangka of Padmasambhava in Essen & Thingo, Die Götter
Bonhams, New York, 14 March 2015, lot 50. des Himalaya, Basel, 1989, no. I-64. Also compare a sublime White Tara
featured: www.himalayanart.org/items/59633. White Tara was of special
Referenced significance to Situ, who is recorded to have painted her many times.
HAR - himalayanart.org/items/33001
Thangkas like the present lot formed the inspiration for a group studied by
Provenance Linrothe, which were composed by the Fourteenth Karmapa Thegchuk
Private New York Collection, acquired in Europe before 1983 Dorje (1798–1868) in Ladakh, on the other side of Tibet (see Jackson,
The Place of Provenance, New York, pp. 181-211, figs. 9.18-9.29).
Referenced
HAR - himalayanart.org/items/31522
Provenance
Private Collection, Washington, D.C. since 1991
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