Page 7 - Bonhams, Images of Devotion, April 21 2021

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A GILT LACQUERED AND POLYCHROMED WOOD Published
MANUSCRIPT COVER CARVED WITH A KAGYU LAMA, David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of
SHADAKSHARI LOKESHVARA, SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA, Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999,
PRAJNAPARAMITA, AND GREEN TARA pp.57 & 60.
TIBET, CIRCA 13TH CENTURY F. Ricca, Arte Buddhista Tibetana: Dei e Demoni dell’ Himalaya, Turin,
Himalayan Art Resources item no.68422 2004, fig.IV.72.
29 x 74 cm (11 3/8 x 29 1/8 in.)
Exhibited
HKD250,000 - 350,000 The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam
Collection, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 6 October–30 December
1999.
西藏 約十三世紀 彩繪漆金木質護經板 Arte Buddhista Tibetana: Dei e Demoni dell’ Himalaya, Palazzo
上有噶舉喇嘛、四臂觀音、釋迦牟尼、般若佛母及綠度母像 Bricherasio, Turin, 18 June–19 September 2004.

Beautifully carved in high relief, this rare manuscript cover depicts Provenance
Shakyamuni Buddha in the earth-touching gesture sitting within a The Nyingjei Lam Collection 菩薩道收藏, acquired in the 1990s
pillared shrine. To his right he is joined by Shadakshari Lokeshvara On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1996–2005
and a lama from one of the early Kagyu orders of Tibetan Buddhism. On loan to the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2005–2018
To his left are Prajnaparamita and Green Tara. The retinue are all (L2005.9.88)
seated on colorful lotus thrones and meticulously carved with a level
of detail normally afforded to standalone sculptures. They are adorned
with beaded crowns, necklaces, and belts, with two of them wearing
lavishly patterned dhotis. Most of the work’s original polychromy and
gilding has also been preserved.

The treatment of the lama closely resembles painted portraits created
in Central Tibet during the 12th to 14th centuries. See a 12th-century
double-portrait thangka as well as a c.1200 painting of Taklung
Thasgpa Chenpo published in Kossak & Singer, Sacred Visions,
New York, 1998, pp.76-7 & 91-3, nos.11 & 18. Also compare two
slightly later polychromed manuscript covers, one formerly in the Ernst
Collection (Sotheby’s, New York, 22 March 2018, lot 919), the other in
the Maitri Collection (Bonhams, New York, 20 March 2018, lot 3211).

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