Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Works of Art

Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Works of Art

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 307. A Thangka Depicting Amitayus Together With Two Thangkas From the Same Series Depicting Vajrakila and Chakrasamvara (3), Tibet, 18th Century.

Property of the Bothwell Family Collection

A Thangka Depicting Amitayus Together With Two Thangkas From the Same Series Depicting Vajrakila and Chakrasamvara (3), Tibet, 18th Century

Auction Closed

September 20, 05:33 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property of the Bothwell Family Collection

A Thangka Depicting Amitayus Together With Two Thangkas From the Same Series Depicting Vajrakila and Chakrasamvara (3)

Tibet, 18th Century


37⅛ by 24 in. (94.3 by 61 cm) and smaller, (3)


Amitayus, the long life deity in red at center, seated in dhyanasana on a lotus throne, wearing a green embroidered shawl and elaborate silk dhoti, adorned with jeweled ornaments and holding a long-life vessel, a halo embellished with foliate patterns, atop sits Amitabha, below Hayagriva, surrounded by lineage holders, set in a mountainous landscape


Vajrakila, the wrathful red deity in a halo of flames, with three round eyes, his mouth gaping with bared fangs, wearing a diadem made of five skulls, the right hand extended with a vajra, the left gripping a black scorpion, adorned with earrings, bracelets, necklaces and a snake garland, a flayed elephant skin wrapped around his shoulders and a tiger skin around his waist, the lower body composed of a blue kila extending from the gaping mouth of a makara, the point puncturing the torso of a supine figure who lies on a triangular base adorned with skulls, surrounded by other wrathful deities, at top center sits Amitabha and Zhabdrug Ngawang Namgyal


Chakrasamvara, the deity in blue, with faces of yellow, green and red, in union with the consort Vajrayogini, surrounded by a halo of rainbow light, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal in the upper right corner, black Jambhala on the bottom right holding a kapala and a jewel spitting mongoose, all set in a verdant landscape


Himalayan Art Resources item no. 13698.

James Bothwell, acquired in Nepal, 1960s. 
The mannered style depicted in these thangkas is typical of 19th Century Eastern Himalayan paintings. For examples showing comparable arrangement and use of color, see H E., Kreijger, Tibetan Paintings, 2001, pls. 46 and 49.