A THANGKA DEPICTING GUHYASAMAJA TIBET, 15TH CENTURY |

the dark blue three-headed and six-armed deity in union with his three-headed and six-armed light blue consort Sparshavajri, each holding the same array of ritual implements including vajra, ghanta, padma, chakra and khadga, wearing golden jewellery and seated on a lotus throne within a trilobate arch of flaming ratna, with Vajradhara in the upper register to the left, together with Acharya Nagarjuna, Indian pandita and mahasiddha, and Tibetan monks, six-armed retinue deities together with the Eight Great Bodhisattvas in the side registers, with ten six-armed krodha in pratyalidha below including Yamantaka, Prajnadrika, Hayagriva, Vighnantaka, Acala, Takkiraja, Niladanda, Mahakala, Chakravarti and Sumbharava, and Hindu deities as guardians in the lower register, including Indra on the elephant vahana Airavata, Vishnu, Agni, Yama, Nairrita, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera, Ganesha, Ishana, Surya, Chandra and Prithvi Himalayan Art Resources item no. 202997.

“The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art”, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5 October-11 January 2003; and Columbus Museum of Art, 6 February-9 May 2004. “Goddess: Divine Energy”, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 13 October-28 January 2006.

Heather Stoddard, “Early Tibetan Paintings: Sources and Styles (11th-14th centuries AD)”, in Archives of Asian Art 49: pp. 26-50, 1996, fig. 26 Amy Heller, Tibetan Art: Tracing the Development of Spiritual Ideals and Art in Tibet, Milan, 1999, cat. no. 97

John C. Huntington and Dina Bangdel, The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art, Chicago, 2003, p. 439, cat. no. 135.

Jackie Menzies, ed, Goddess: Divine Energy, Sydney, 2006, p. 242, cat. no. 151.

Canvas with an original join running down vertically just off center to the right of painting with attendant losses throughout the length. Splits in the canvas through the upper registers at center all repaired and inpainted. Splits on right upper side of painting running past halo and ending at crease of elbow of upper arm. Crease is repaired, filled and inpainted. Creasing and losses to main faces repaired and inpainted. Outline of the nose of consort is strengthened. Creases and losses throughout. No further restoration.
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The painting of the celestial couple is one of the most elegant Tibetan works from the early fifteenth century, a masterpiece of design and execution. The pure red space of the shrine serves to highlight the dynamic line of the monumental figures. Subtle blue shading gives dimension to the goddess’s lithe form draped with scarves and exquisite gold jewellery. Rarely is this iconographic subject so clearly delineated, allowing the viewer to follow the contours of the bodies, the flow of the scarves, examine hands and ritual implements silhouetted against the red background, and to gaze upon the otherworldly countenance of Guhyasamaja and his consort. The thangka is painted in the classic central Tibetan fifteenth century style, with the retinue and lineages arranged in geometric registers around the central shrine, cf. jewellery design, the geometric arrangement of the retinue deities in registers around the large central figure, and the shape of niches within the registers with the fifteenth century Vajrabhairava painting in the collection (see lot 923).

Like the Vajrabhairava, the Guhyasamaja may also have been commissioned for a Gelukpa patron. For a comprehensive discourse on the iconography and the importance of this painting of Guhyasamaja, see the essay by Cathleen Ann Cummings in John C. Huntington and Dinah Bangdel, The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art, Chicago, 2003, pp. 438-40.