Page 36 - Bonhams Indian and Himalayan Art March 2016 New York

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A FOLIO FROM AN ILLUMINATED BHADRAKALPIKA SUTRA
Tibet, late 13th century
Distemper, gold, and silver on indigo-dyed paper; recto with identifying
gold Tibetan inscriptions, verso with six lines of gold Tibetan script.
6 3/4 x 24 1/8 in. (17.1 x 61.3 cm)
$20,000 - 30,000

西藏 十三世紀晚期 賢劫經經頁

Each golden Buddha is identified from left to right as Tathagata
Tubsal, Tathagata Chandraprabha, Tathagata Kanakaprabha, and
Tathagata Legjin. At least three of the four names can be found in
the Bhadrakalpika Sutra’s list of 1000 Buddhas of our age. This sutra
provides an account of the Buddhas who have already appeared
during this aeon: Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kasyapa, and
Shakyamuni; and the attributes of those yet to come, defining the
circumstances of their birth, their special qualities, their disciples,
their span of life, the duration of their teachings, and the relics they
will leave behind.

Compare with other related folios, dated circa 1195, in the Newark
Museum of Art (Reynolds, ‘New Discoveries About a Set of Tibetan
Manuscripts in the Newark Museum’, in Orientations, Vol. 18, No. 7,
July 1987, pp. 36-42). Also compare the treatment of the attending
monks’ faces, the red-domed aureole, and triangular projections
suggesting the throne behind each Buddha to a late 13th-century
painted manuscript cover in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Kossak & Singer, Sacred Visions, New York, 1998, pp.148-9, no. 39).

Referenced
HAR - himalayanart.org/items/61446

Provenance
Private Collection, USA

34 | BONHAMS