Page 142 - 2021 March 17th, Indian and Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, Christie's New York City

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A RARE PAINTING OF THE PATRON, HVASHANG The Qing dynasty witnessed a revitalization of the cultural contacts between
TIBET OR CHINA, 17TH-18TH CENTURY Tibet and imperial China, and the Manchu ruling class officially patronized
31¡ x 18Ω in. (79.7 x 47 cm.) Tibetan-style Buddhism in the capital of Beijing. This period also witnessed
an explosion in production of Buddhist art, particularly during the reign of the
$200,000-300,000
Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735-1796), thanks to innovations such as the printing
PROVENANCE: press (for producing thangkas) and industrial molds (for producing sculptures).
Private collection, Princeton, New Jersey, by repute. Stylistically, painting sets of the Sixteen Great Arhats from the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries continued to follow the early Ming style, with arhats
LITERATURE:
set in Chinese-style landscapes; such works had a profound influence on
Himalayan Art Resources, 24654.
Tibetan painting styles of other subjects as well, particularly that of the Karma
Gardri style, which was directly modeled on Yongle arhat paintings.
西藏或內地 十七/十八世紀 哈香尊者畫像
The present work is a masterful example of an early Qing-period Sixteen Great
來源: Arhats group painting. The patron sits within a rich landscape, shaded by
私人珍藏，普林斯頓，新澤西州（傳）。 the boughs of a pine tree with delicately-rendered pine needles and gnarled,
lichen-covered bark. In the middle distance, roiling waters lead the eye to hills
出版:
“喜馬拉雅藝術資源”（Himalayan Art Resources），編號24654。 dotted with additional pines, and in the distance, tall peaks recede into the
mist. The sky is unpainted, leaving the raw silk to evoke the ethereal qualities
of the mist, a feature common to Chinese landscape painting.
The present painting, depicting the Buddhist patron, Hvashang set within a The present painting is almost certainly from the same set as a painting of
verdant landscape and accompanied by attendant figures, is part of a tradition Chudapanthaka from the Hahn Kwang-ho collection, illustrated in Art of Tibet:
of arhat painting sets with origins in both early Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism, A Catalogue of Special Exhibition, Seoul, 1999, p. 79, no. 55. The decoration of
and which achieved an extraordinary degree of syncretism between the two the mat underneath the central figure, with a hem decorated with ruyi motif
cultures in the early fifteenth century and again during the Qing dynasty in the in red and blue, is almost identical between the two paintings. Compare, also,
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. the green and white clouds at the left of the painting, and the landscape at
right with unpainted silk sky, tall, receding mountains, and bunches of pine
The origins of the figure of Hvashang are somewhat unclear. He is not trees on v-shaped hills.
mentioned in any Indian texts, and does not appear in Tibetan art until at
least the fifteenth century, when he is depicted alongside images of Buddha
Shakyamuni, the disciples Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, the Sixteen Great
Arhats, the four Guardian Kings, and the attendant, Dharmatala. After the
fifteenth century, Hvashang becomes an established member of this group
of twenty five figures, and is only represented in this context. Referred to as
the patron of the arhats, the name Hvashang is a Tibetan approximation for
the Chinese word for monk, héshàng and perhaps relates to the myth that the
Tang emperor, Taizong asked him to invite the Buddha Shakyamuni to teach
in China; although the Buddha had already passed away, the Sixteen Great
Arhats apparently flew to China and taught the dharma.

In terms of appearance, Hvashang is nearly always represented as a rotund and
joyful man, holding a mala and a fruit, with children playing nearby or climbing
on him. His depiction closely mirrors that of Budai, a semi-historical Chinese
monk who practiced in the tenth century and is considered to be Maitreya
Buddha in the Chan Buddhist tradition (and is therefore known colloquially as
the ‘Laughing Buddha’ or ‘Fat Buddha’). It is possible Hvashang’s appearance
and codification with the larger Sixteen Arhat group was an attempt to
synthesize the Taizong myth and the Budai tradition with the Tibetan-style
Buddhism that was practiced at the imperial court in the fifteenth century.
The arhat paintings of the early Ming dynasty owe much to the secular
tradition of landscape literati painting in China, and break from the earlier
Tibetan compositional practice of Buddhist paintings, in which deities and
other important figures are set within a regimented and prescribed hierarchy.
In most of the arhat painting sets, and as in the present painting, the main
figures are set within lush landscapes, surrounded by craggy mountains,
curving pine boughs, and flowing streams. In the tradition of Chinese literati
paintings, nature and country life was seen as an escape from the intrigues of
the court, a place where scholars could find the peace needed to write poetry,
perform music, and develop ideas. It is no coincidence that the arhats of these
early painting sets, figures who represented wisdom and enlightenment, were A Painting of Chudapanthaka; Tibeto-Chinese style;
placed within the tranquil confines of a natural landscape. gouache on cotton, 30 ¾ x 18 in. (78 x 46 cm). Hwajeong
Museum, Seoul.