A magnificent and important early embroidered Mandala of Chakrasamvara, 'The Wheel of Supreme Bliss' Central Asia or China, mid to late 14th century

the thangka depicting 'the Wheel of Supreme Bliss', with Samvara, representing the compassion of Buddha, appearing in the center embracing his consort Vajravarahi, embodying the Buddha's omniscient wisdom. Samvara in blue with four faces and twelve arms wielding ritual instruments including khatvanga, trishula, pasha, damaru, kapala, the three heads of the Hindu deity Brahma, and his principal attributes the ghanta and vajra, while displaying a white elephant skin in his uppermost hands; stepping vigorously to the right in alidha posture trampling the Hindu deities Bhairava and Kalaratri. The structure of the mandala consisting of concentric circles of deities and ambrosia-filled kalasha vessels, over red, blue, green and yellow quadrants, all within palace gates, encircled by eight cremation grounds, shmashana, on a blue field within a vajra border and a ring of fire. The upper register depicting the two-armed form of Samvara in the center, at the far left a dark-skinned and long-haired figure, possibly an Indian teacher, and at the far right, a Tibetan lama sporting a moustache and short goatee, wearing the distinctive black hat of the Karmapa sect of the Kagyu order. The lower register depicting four-armed figures flanked by protector deities, at the right, Lhamo seated on a reclining mule, and to the left, four-armed Mahakala in blue, the lower corners with donor figures dressed in Mongol or Central Asian robes , at the right, a large possibly male figure in black robes holding a lotus scepter with three smaller attendants, and at the left, four male figures in robes with detailed borders holding lotus, offering bowl and long-handled censers flanked by two smaller attendants. The green silk ground embroidered in floss silk, with further quilted appliques of dyed silk and cotton providing color variation in the ground-fields, with couched threads and couched slivers of silver foil generously used throughout as detailing in the crowns, canopies and borders.

Anna Maria Rossi & Fabio Rossi, 'Selection 1994', London, 1994, Catalogue no.15

The dating of this lot is consistent with radiocarbon testing by accelerator mass spectrometry conducted at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, Oxford University, 20th February 1989, sample no. OxA-1822.

The scheme of the embroidery is typical of mandala design of the period, with deities framed within arches in the top and bottom registers, and the corners of the mandala field depicting emanations of the principal subject attended by subsidiary deities. Compare a very similar design in the celebrated Yuan dynasty kesi mandala of Yamantaka, circa 1330-32, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, see James C.Y. Watt and Ann E. Wardwell, When Silk was Gold. Central Asian and Chinese Textiles, New York, 1998, cat.no.25, pp.95-100. While this kesi mandala was a commission from the Imperial Mongol household in a contemporary Tibetan style, the present embroidery appears to incorporate styles from the Central Asian regions.

Certain influences can be traced, for example, to the somewhat earlier Buddhist paintings and embroideries found at Khara Khoto, a garrison city of the Tangut Xia kingdom. While lay donors are rarely portrayed on Tibetan works of the period, the paintings of the Central Asian regions often portray their donors, see Mikhail Piotrovsky, ed., Lost Empire of the Silk Road. Buddhist Art from Khara Khoto, Milan, 1993, no.7 p.121, nos.20-21, pp.142-45, no.23, pp.150-51 and no.24, pp.152-53, each painting done in a different style, all now preserved in the State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. As a particularly Central Asian feature, a mandala of Chakrasamvara and a painting of Vajravarahi, ibid., no.22, pp.146-47, and no.26, pp.156-57 respectively, have graveyard scenes painted on a light blue background as in the present embroidery - the Tibetan convention being, in contrast, on a dark blue background. The tradition for embroidered images in Central Asia is confirmed by the Dakini thangka, ibid, no.34, p.175, where figures are also portrayed in a naive yet powerful fashion. Compare also a kesi thangka of Vighnantaka, from the Tangut Xia empire, in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated Masterworks of Asian Art, Cleveland, 1998, pp.62-63, where the charging minor figures within the main torana reveal similar animation and loose conception of the body, as on the unconventionally posed human victims within the cremation grounds on the present mandala.

The present embroidered Chakrasamvara mandala cannot be ascribed such an early date as the Khara Khoto works mentioned above. In addition to a Karmapa being portrayed in the upper register and one in a meditation hut in the lower left spandrel, two Red Hat Sharmapa lamas are shown, one each in the upper right and lower right spandrels. Their inclusion must therefore suggest a date after 1283 when Drakpa Senge acceded to the title of the first Sharmapa. A mid-fourteenth century date may be ascribed by comparison with the scheme of the kesi mandala of circa 1330 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

In the discussion by Jane Casey Singer of the present embroidery for the exhibition by Rossi & Rossi Ltd., 'Selection 1994', Catalogue, London, 1994, no.15, p.35, she cites the close links between the first Red Hat Sharmapa and the third Black Hat Karmapa, Rangchung Dorje (1284-1339),  proposing that they are the figures represented within the present embroidery, since the former was his leading disciple. Further, the third Black Hat Karmapa had close ties with the Imperial court; having been presented a mandala of Chakrasamvara by the Yuan emperor, Togha Temur, in 1336-37, and in fact remaining in Beijing and passing away within the Imperial court two years later. The emperor Togha Temur and his brother Khoshila are in fact depicted on the Metropolitan's kesi mandala, and their costumes and headgear are extremely similar to those of the donor figures on the present embroidery, and it seems likely these were members of the Mongol nobility.

Compare also two very rare fourteenth-century Central Asian embroidered fragments of Buddhist protective goddesses, Pancharakshas, associated with the five senses, one in the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated by James C.Y. Watt and Ann E. Wardwell, When Silk was Gold. Central Asian and Chinese Textiles, New York, 1998, cat.no.61, pp.199-200, representing Mahasahasrapramardani (Hearing), and the other exhibited at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Heavens' Embroidered Cloths. One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong, 1995, cat.no.27, pp.134-35, representing Mahamantrausarini (Taste). As discussed by Watt and Wardwell, op.cit., p.199, stylistic details such as the extension of the eye beyond the outline of the face, visible on a few figures in the present piece, as well as the prevalence of cotton, incorporated as color-field elements, point to strong Central Asian influence on the present mandala.

It is interesting to note that the second half of the fourteenth century, the most likely period in which the present piece was commissioned, was a time of great political turbulence as the Mongol dynasty in China imploded under internecine struggles. By the 1370s, the first emperor of the new Ming dynasty, Hongwu, had already acted to strengthen ties with the kingdom of Tibet by inviting the fourth Black Hat Karmapa to his capital in Nanjing. Given this Chakrasamvara mandala's size, complexity of conception, and the incorporation of various fragments of silk brocade, dyed cotton and damasks, it must therefore have represented an extremely important and expensive commission during this time of social and political turmoil. As such, it seems very likely an attempt by a ruling Mongol family to consolidate patronage and political influence with Tibetan Buddhist sects within a region of Chinese Turkestan or Central Asia. For a full discussion on the ritual use of such a Chakrasamvara mandala, see John C. Huntington and Dina Bangdel, The Circle of Bliss. Buddhist Meditational Art, San Diego, 2003, pp.240-251 and nos.70, 71, and 79.