Page 6 - March 23 2022 Boinghams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art

TIBETAN PAINTINGS FROM THE COLLECTION
OF RALPH GLASGAL (LOTS 401-416)
TIBETAN PAINTINGS FROM THE
COLLECTION OF RALPH GLASGAL
(LOTS 401-416)
401
A RARE PAINTING OF AMITABHA IN
THE SUKHAVATI
PROBABLY WESTERN TIBET, 15TH-16TH
CENTURY
15v x 9p in. (39.7 x 23.5 cm.)
$15,000-20,000
LITERATURE:
Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 24725.
This rare painting depicts the tathagata,
Amitabha, seated in the Sukhavati, otherwise
known as the Western Pure Land. Worship of
Pure Land and of Amitabha in the Sukhavati in
particular, was extremely popular across the
Himalayas and East Asia from an early date.
In the present painting, Amitabha is seated
on a throne over a lotus blossom emerging
from the waters below. At the top of the
painting, the primordial buddha Vajradhara is
seated alongside the five tathagata or dhyani
buddhas, and the rest of the composition is
filled with a multitude of bodhisattvas, retinue
figures, and lamas, including six lamas facing
one another and presumably passing along
Buddhist teachings. Palaces sit in each corner
of the painting.
Certain characteristics of the style point to
a Western Tibet origin for the painting: the
triangular swatches of fabric at the front of
the throne base, the stylized and exaggerated
folds of the drapery of the central figure,
and the lettuce-like petals of the lotus base
are all typical of Western Tibetan paintings,
particularly from the area of Guge. Compare
with a painting of Amitabha in the Sukhavati
in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of
Art (acc. no. 84.265), illustrated on Himalayan
Art Resources, item no. 86908.

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編號

The following selection of Tibetan paintings (lots 401-416) come from the collection of noted explorer,
scientist, and audio engineer, Ralph Glasgal (b. 1932). As part of his scientific research and engineering
work, Glasgal has traveled all over the world, from the icy shores of Antarctica to the Himalayas. As an
auroral scientist with the United States wintering party of the 1957 Antarctic mission of the International
Geophysical Year at Wilkes Station in Antarctica, Glasgal was the first person to set foot on a small,
penguin-occupied island in Vincennes Bay – the island was subsequently named for him. In later decades,
Glasgal’s passions extended to mountaineering, and he has reached the base camps of the world’s ten
highest mountains. During his time trekking in the Himalayas, he also developed a passion for Tibetan
art, and Christie’s is honored to present a small portion of Mr. Glasgal’s collection of Tibetan paintings in
the following lots.

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