Page 76 - Christies March 14 2017 Tibetan Bronzes NYC

250 verso
A THANGKA DEPICTING A MEDICINE BUDDHA

TIBET, 18TH CENTURY
28 x 18Ω in. (71.3 x 47 cm.)

$30,000-40,000

EXHIBITED

Picturing Enlightenment: Tibetan Tangkas from the Mead Art Museum,
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Vermont,
12 September – 7 December 2014

PUBLISHED

Himalayan Art Resource (himalayanart.org), item no. 24313
西藏 十八世紀 藥師佛唐卡

Masterfully painted in clear vivid colors, this work demonstrates the New
Menri style of painting which is known for its naturalism and elegance. The
persimmon-colored Buddha is seated on a lush lotus throne backed by a
radiant double-nimbus and fanked by Ushnisha on the left and green Tara on
the right. Zalzang Padma Wangchug (1719-1770s), an important hierarch in the
Nyingma Buddhist tradition, sits in the sky at top center surrounded by lineage
fgures. Protector deities encompassed in fames including Dorje Legpa and
Tsiu Mara at bottom left, Du in the center and Lu and Yang Sang Dragmo at
right, are interspersed within the rich verdant landscape.

This painting is from a set of the Eight Manifestations of Padmasambhava,
fve of which reside in the collection of the Mead Art Museum in Amherst,
Massachusetts. The verso of each is consecrated by a long inscription and
a pair of handprints which may be attributed to the Seventh Dalai Lama
(M. Rhie, Picturing Enlightenment: Tibetan Tangkas in the Mead Art Museum at
Amherst College, Amherst, 2013, p.140, footnote 11).

Exhibited in Picturing Enlightenment: Tibetan Tangkas from the Mead Art Museum, Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, Vermont, 12 September – 7 December 2014.