A Magnificent Thangka Depicting Shakyamuni Buddha at Bodhgaya

Christie's London: June 13, 1979, lot 212

George P. Bickford Collection

"Indian Art from the George P. Bickford Collection", The Cleveland Art Museum, Cleveland, Ohio, January 14—February 16, 1975

University Art Museum; The University of Texas, Austin, Texas, March 20—April 25, 1975

Krannert Art Museum; University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, October 5—November 9, 1975

Fogg Art Museum; Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 3—March 7, 1976

University Gallery; University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, March 28—May 3, 1976

Phoenix Art Museum; Phoenix, Arizona, May 28—July 30, 1976

University Art Museum, University of California; Berkeley, California, October 5—November 28, 1976

University of Michigan Art Museum; Ann Arbor, Michigan, January 2—February 13, 1977

S. Czuma, Indian Art from the George P. Bickford Collection, Cleveland, 1975, cat. no. 134

This rare and magnificent thankga depicting Buddha Shakyamuni at Bodhgaya is a superlative example of 15th century painting in the syncretistic Tibeto-Nepalese style. The Buddha Shakyamuni is shown at center with regal crown, seated cross-legged atop a lotus throne in vajraparyankasa, his left hand in dhyanamudra or the gesture of meditation, his right hand demonstrating bhumisparshamudra, touching the earth as witness to his heroic attainment of nirvana, liberation from samsaric existence.

Flanked by the bodhisattvas Manjushri and Maitreya, Shakyamuni is depicted within the seven-tiered Mahabodhi temple surmounted by a bodhi tree at Bodhgaya, the historical location marking attainment of enlightenment. Twenty eight outer panels depict sensitively rendered and familiar scenes from the life of the Buddha. Moving clockwise in chronological fashion, the narrative begins in the upper right register with the dream of Maya, an auspicious white elephant hovering over her supine figure symbolizing the conception of an extraordinary child. The panels continue through the Buddha’s precocious childhood; his marriage, renunciation and escape from palace life; his assault by the armies of Mara during his infamous vigil; his attainment of enlightenment and subsequent teachings to disciples, kings and beasts. The narrative ends in the upper register with Buddha’s parinirvana, the death of an enlightened being.

Characteristics of the Central Tibetan style popularized in Sakya ateliers dominate the present work, marked by effusive, intricate detailing depicted in a primary palette, which is a hallmark of the Nepalese aesthetic[1]. Compare the structural composition including the order of the narrative panel, architectural elements of the temple and stupas, the palette and hyperabundance of foliate patterning, and double lotus throne guarded by a pair vyalas; as well as the figurative details including the wide forehead and broad shoulders of the Buddha, the columnar figures of the bodhisattvas and ancillary characters, the patchwork and embellishment of the garments of the central trio, and the adorsed hamsa adorning the throne to an exceptional 14th century Nepalese pata depicting Buddha Shakyamuni and Episodes from his Life, in the Tibet Museum, Lhasa, see J. Lee-Kalisch, Tibet: Kloster offnen ifre Schatzkammern, Essen, 2006, cat. no. 16, and also G. Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, Rome, 1949, p. 122, pl. 6.

The Tibetan origin of the present work is distinguishable from Nepalese prototypes by the presence in the upper left and right register of figures in traditional long-sleeved Tibetan robes. Significant stylistic elements of the present work suggest an early to mid-15th century designation, such as the tiered symmetrical panels of the upper register; the elaborate embellishment, patchwork design and crenellated edging of Shakyamuni’s robes, the architecture of the lower throne; the patterning and layered fall of the throne cloth; the elegant foliate motifs; the menagerie of mythical animals; and the overlapping oval aureoles surrounding the Buddha, see a contemporaneous 15th century Tibetan thangka depicting Bhaisajyaguru and his Divine Realm from the Edward Binney III Collection in P. Pal, Tibetan Paintings, Basel, 1984, pl. 44.

[1]For further discussion, see P. Pal, Tibetan Paintings, Basel, 1984, pp. 97—104.