Vasudhara Mandala Distemper on Cloth Tibet

The six-armed goddess of wealth and abundance holding the pustaka, triratna, kalasha and dhanyamanjari, seated at ease within an eight petal lotus, surrounded by eighteen deities of her entourage within the mandala palace, makara forming vajra arches over the four palace gates, all surrounded by rings of multi-colored lotus petals and flames, and set against a red scrollwork field with an Indian adept seated at each corner, the mandala contained between registers depicting the Sakya lineage, including Vajradhara, Nairatma and Indian masters above, translators with Tibetan Sakya hierarchs and Amitayus below.

The Vasudhara mandala bears numerous similarities to the Jucker Kharamukha Chakrasamvara, see Sotheby’s New York, March 28, 2006, lot 66, and indeed both mandalas are most likely to be from the same series. The dimensions of both paintings are virtually identical. The palette is strikingly similar, and although red has been chosen for the scrollwork field of the Vasudhara and green for the Kharamukha Chakrasamvara, the line, form and shading of the arabesques are identical in each. The eight figures in the upper and lower registers are arranged in the same manner in both paintings, each positioned against a shaded red arch, and the monks and Indian teachers are portrayed with identical posture, expression and clothing. In each painting four figures appear in the corners of the scrollwork field, monks and dakinis in the Kharamukha Chakrasamvara, and Lotsawa (translators) in the Vasudhara. A golden inscription identifying the subject of the mandala runs beneath the lower register of each painting. In iconographic context, Vasudhara is linked to the Chakrasamvara cycle as an exoteric form of Vajravarahi, the prajna of Samvara, see Huntington and Bangdel, 2004, p. 409. Like the Jucker Kharamukha Chakrasamvara this exquisite Vasudhara mandala remains in exceptional condition. It epitomises the exuberant Sakya painting style of the sixteenth century, full of animation and color, with charming miniature detail in perfectly symmetrical compositions. Compare the style of a set of three sixteenth century Sakya paintings, one a Takkiraja now in the Museum der Kulturen, Basel, see Essen and Thingo, 1990, pp.162-3, no. I-101, a Kurukulla in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, see Pal, 1975, p. 83, no. 48, and a Ganapati, see Sotheby’s, New York, March 26, 2003, lot 60.