Page 114 - Contenplating the Divie Buddhist Art Christies Hong Kong

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The combination of kesi or ‘cut-silk’, a weft-woven silk, with the use of embroidery
to highlight areas of detail, is highly unusual; its overall effect enhances the features
of the subject matter.
The Qianlong court commissioned an unprecedented number of Tibetan Buddhist
sculptures, ritual objects, thangkas and textiles to furnish the Imperial palace and
temple altars and to send as tribute to Lamaist monasteries. It is recorded that
nearly 1500 silk Thangkas were collected in the Yonghegong (Palace of Harmony
and Peace), often described as the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist
monastery under imperial patronage. The Beijing Palace Museum still preserves
a large number of kesi and embroidered thangkas, many of which are recorded in
Midian Zhulin (Forest of Pearls in the Secret Hall), an inventory of Buddhist and
Daoist calligraphy and paintings from the imperial collection.
The majority of Buddhist kesi panels from the imperial collection share similar
features: they depict a rich and varied compositions in which each plane is depicted
in a different pattern generously framing the central Buddhist figure seated in the
mid-section; the faces of the deities depicted are rendered in a realistic manner
and with the current lot, some have been suggested as being portraits of spiritual
teachers to the Emperor; each decorative element of the thangka is lavishly adorned,
including the bejewelled canopy, the flaming mandorla, the layered kasaya and
the lotus-petal base; they are woven with multi-coloured silk and gold threads.
These finely woven Tibetan Buddhist paintings demonstrate the wealth of imperial
patronage with no expense spared in their production.
Compare the current piece with two examples in museum collections sharing
similar compositions and decorative styles, suggesting they came from the same
imperial workshop, Jiangnan sanzhizao (Jiangnan Textile Tri-Manufactories) which
produced silk and satin for the Imperial Household department of the Qing court.
The first is from the Beijing Palace Museum Collection (fig. 1) which in addition
has a woven inscription by Emperor Qianlong above the central panel. This piece
is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum:
Embroidered Pictures, Hong Kong, 2005, pl. 110, p. 198. The second, also depicting
Sakyamuni seated in padmasana on a lotus-petal base under a bejewelled canopy, is
in the Liaoning Provincial Museum (fig. 2) and is illustrated in Heavens’ Embroidered
Cloths: One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong, 1995, plate 117, pp. 334-
5. Except for the falling flowers on the blue ground, the composition, iconography,
posture and rendering of the features closely matches that of the present lot.
Other notable imperial Buddhist thangkas in public collections include two other
examples in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei. One, with inventory
number: 故-絲-000162-00000, is dated to 1762 (corresponding to the 27th Year of
the Qianlong Reign), depicting Sakyamuni with an imperial description on the top of
the panel; the other depicting Amitayus (inventory number: 故-絲-000123-00000).
There are also three kesi tapestries of the Qianlong period, with representations of
Amitayus, Sakyamuni and Maitreya, mounted on the ceiling of the Chinese Museum
in the Palace of Fontainebleau.
Unlike the examples cited, the Amitayus figure on the present lot is placed in the
foreground filing most of the panel, his benevolent expression and downcast eyes
create an immediate and intimate rapport with the one contemplating the image,
setting this thangka apart from the rest.

fig. 1 Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
圖一 北京故宮博物院藏品
206 x 86 cm.

110 Contemplating The Divine – Fine Buddhist Art 正觀自在 — 佛教藝術精品