A Thangka Depicting Chaturbhuja Mahakala, Tibet, circa 15th Century

Auction Closed

September 20, 05:33 PM GMT

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property of the Bothwell Family Collection

A Thangka Depicting Chaturbhuja Mahakala

Tibet, circa 15th Century

31 by 25½ in. (78.7 by 64.8 cm)

the wrathful deity black in color standing in alidhasana, with three round red eyes and gaping red mouth and flaming orange hair, holding a heart in his primary right hand and a kapala in his primary left, the secondary right arm wielding a sword overhead and the left arm holding a khatvanga with a trident tip, adorned with a crown of skulls, wrapped in snakes and wearing a tiger skin around his waist, surrounded by a host of other deities

Himalayan Art Resources item no. 13703.

James Bothwell, acquired in Nepal, 1960s.

Elegant and accomplished line drawing and a sparing use of colour on the dark blue silk background creates an ethereal presence of the wrathful gods in this rare and early example of nagthang — blue or black background — painting. The dark background contrasts with and highlights the licking red flames, the red palms of the hands and soles of the feet, and the whites of the eyes, teeth, human bone ornaments and skull cups. The full and rounded form of Mahakala is emphasized by subtle shading. The earliest Tibetan painting in this nagthang style also depicts Chaturbhuja Mahakala and dates to the fourteenth century, see Nathalie Bazin, Rituels tibétains, Paris, 2002, p. 99, cat. no. 41. A fifteenth century Vajrapani and consort, formerly in the Stuart Cary Welch collection, is painted on similar dark blue silk, see Sotheby’s London, 31 May, 2011, lot 86. The style of the Mahakala is closely comparable to the Cary Welch example and both may have been from the same atelier. Another close example from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 2006.105) depicting Panjarantha Mahakala on blue silk shows continuity in the styling of the flames and ornamentation of the crown.