Page 56 - Bonhams IMages of Devotion, Hong Kong Nov 30 2022

The artist’s refrain from landscape elements in this painting’s minimalist
background concentrates the viewer’s attention on the glorious architecture and
details of the throne, the shrine placed before it, and the great sage seated on it.

Prominently situated at the center of the foreground is an elaborate, red-lacquered
shrine table in the shape of an official’s wide-brimmed hat, constructed as an
openwork dome revealing four orange struts. This rarely seen object is also found
in an opulent thangka of Vajradhara produced in the Khenri style for the Jonang
order (HAR 7692), although it is not as pronounced or elaborate in that example.
The ‘hat’s’ finial takes the form of a large lotus pad on which are placed a golden
lion ornament, a ritual conch, and a gem-filled alms bowl raised on a quadrupedal
base. Either side of the shrine table is a pair of pink lotuses supporting a Chinese
golden incense burner and a bowl of speckled persimmons.

One of the most charismatic nuances of this extraordinary painting is the pair of
well-coiffed lions guarding the lower section of the Buddha’s throne. Specifically,
the lion on the viewer’s right redirects his typical line of sight away from the
Buddha, instead engaging the viewer with an almost debonair manner. Such a
departure from convention bespeaks the sheer confidence of this artist, and the
only known thangka to share this striking detail is the aforementioned in the Palace
Museum (fig. 1). Elsewhere, the base of the Buddha’s lotus throne is painted with
exquisite panache. The lower portion of the rectangular plinth is obscured by a
pair of lotus-borne bodhisattvas, but the top is encrusted with colored gems set
into quatrefoil gilded settings, and the center is overlaid by a fine red and blue silk
throne cover of golden phoenixes and a surrounding arabesque of lotus flowers.
Immediately above that, Shakyamuni’s lotus pedestal has multilayered petals of
shaded blue, green, and pink with the innermost crinkling into a trefoil frame from
the heat of the flaming lotus-borne gem it encloses. This fabulous element can be
seen on one other thangka (albeit a faint shadow of the design), formerly in the R.
H. Ellsworth Collection, which depicts Vajradhara (Rhie & Thurman, Wisdom and
Compassion, 1991, p. 358, no. 148). A mural painting of Buddha on the third floor
of the Puntsog Ling also renders this concept of diminutive lotuses housed within
larger petals (HAR 62429).

The throneback, or prabhamandala, has a stack of mythical creatures rising up
the sides, painted with such ingenuity that one would hardly know that they were
iconographically prescribed. Note, for instance, the bejeweled elephant on the
viewer’s right struggling slightly more than his counterpart to balance the shifting
weight of the lion above him. On top of the lions, handsome pale-blue dragons
(sharabha ) are ridden by Chinese-styled young boys that hold up the projecting
ridge of the throne. The sequence continues with pale-green winged makaras
whose tails issue a mass of orange foliate scrolls, heightened with gold, vibrating
against a faint line of blue mist. Two well-nourished garland bearers nestled within
the vines orient their bifurcation upwards, where a pair of naginis propitiate the
stalwart Garuda guarding the Buddha from up high. The parasol surmounting
the throne has a tiered, faceted structure with long red streamers cascading from
each corner and an enflamed triratna crowning it. The clouds, rendered with gold
trimming and rainbow bands extending in two tips to each side, neatly frame the
parasol.

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