Page 112 - Bonhams IMages of Devotion, Hong Kong Nov 30 2022

1041
A THANGKA OF SCENES FROM THE PAST LIVES OF
SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA
TIBET, 19TH CENTURY
Distemper on cloth; recto with gold Tibetan inscriptions identifying the stories
within red panels throughout the landscape.
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 74110
Image: 86 x 55.5 cm (33 7/8 x 21 7/8 in.);
With silks: 143 x 86 cm (56 1/4 x 33 7/8 in.)

HKD150,000 - 200,000
西藏 十九世紀 釋迦牟尼佛源流唐卡

Surrounding Shakyamuni at the center, this thangka depicts four jatakas from the
11th-century Avadanakalpalata by Kshemendra. These correspond to chapters 45
to 48, namely:

(45) Ajatashatru’s Treachery, the evil deeds of a king and the consequences
(46) Kritajna Discovers the Power of Truth
(47) The Trunks of the Sala Trees
(48) Sarvarthasiddha’s Visit to the Naga Realm

Tucci published thirty-one thangkas from this set in black and white that he
collected on his expeditions to Tibet between 1926-48. A thangka from an
earlier copy of this set is in the Rubin Museum of Art, New York (F1996.27.1;
HAR 494) and another is in the Tibet House, New Delhi (HAR 72036). Derived
from woodblock prints produced at Narthang monastery, two near-identical
compositions from similar sets are held in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and
formerly of the collection of Baron von Stael-Holstein, Beijing (see Zangchuan
Fojiao, Tangka-Gugong Bowuyuan Cang Wenwu Zhenpin Quanji, 2006, p. 70, no.
61; and Gordon, The Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism, 1972, pl. 5; respectively).
Also compare with an example sold at Bonhams, New York, 14 September 2015,
lot 8.

Published
Guiseppe Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, Volume III, Rome: La Libreria Della Stato,
Roma, 1949, no. 114.

Provenance
Guiseppe Tucci, Rome, by 1948
Private New England Collection, acquired 1970s

110 | BONHAMS