Buddha distemper on cloth Tibet

The Buddha Shakyamuni with hands in bhumishparsha mudra holding a patra in the left hand, wearing the red robes of an Indian monk with gilded floral and cloud patterns, the hems with raised gold decoration, seated in vajraparyankasana on a multicolored lotus supported by a throne with lions and elephants and Shyama Tara, a golden scrolling nimbus rising behind with beading highlighted in raised gesso, with rampant vyala either side standing on the backs of elephants, the Buddha flanked by his two principal disciples Shariputra and Maudgalyayana standing holding patra, and surrounded by arhats, Buddhas of Confession and Amitayus, with Kubera and Krishna Jambhala below, accompanied by guardians of the directions Vaishravana, Virudhaka, Dhrtarastra and Virupaksha.

Patricia and Richard Robinson, acquired London, 1952

In fair and honest condition for the period, with strengthening of the support with canvas inserts especially in the upper two registers, as visible in the catalogue illustration. Wear, losses, accretion and creasing overall, including abrasion to the raised gesso decoration of the prabha and halo, but the majority of the gilded gesso design remaining intact and in good condition. Suppression of worn areas of canvas, but no in-painting or retouching.
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Raised and gilded gesso decoration, particularly popular in Tibetan painting in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, contributes a sumptuous three-dimensional effect to the picture, particularly effective in low-lit monastic conditions, cf. the raised jewelry, and the similar throne format with raised work nimbus, of a White Vajradhara from the late fourteenth to the first half of the fifteenth century, see Marylin M. Rhie and Robert A. F. Thurman, Worlds of Transformation: Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion, New York, 1999, pp. 422-4, cat. no. 166 (89). The Shakyamuni Buddha thanka reveals stylistic continuum with earlier Tibetan paintings and their Pala Indian sources of inspiration. Mythical animals inhabit the throne as seen in early Tibetan paintings and Pala stele and bronzes, with the vyala in particular echoing the exuberance of the Indian model.