Notes
Extraordinary in its size and visual power, the painting presents the historical Buddha Shakyamuni flanked by his two closest disciples, Shariputra and Maudgalyayana.1 These two friends converted to Buddhism after meeting Assaji, one of the Buddha's first five disciples.Leaving behind their lives as wandering ascetics, Shariputra and Maudgalyayana embraced the Buddha's teachings and became pivotal members of the early Buddhist order. Their spiritual stature was such that they were deemed arhats, "worthy ones" whose conduct and spiritual achievement made them leading exemplars of early Buddhist doctrine.In this work, they turn to the Buddha, offering their alms bowls.
Shakyamuni displays the gesture of teaching (dharmacakra pravartana mudra). His face imparts the powerful inward focus of deep contemplation. Two deer flank the wheel of the Buddhist law on the lower throne beneath his seat, recalling the Buddha's first sermon at the Deer Park in Sarnath. He wears the deep red saffron outer robe (samghati) of a Buddhist monk, a rectangular patchwork cloth that is hemmed with a border of floral scrolls.Florets in raised gold further enhance the beauty of the garment. The Buddha's patchwork robe is traditionally thought to have been fashioned from small pieces of fabric gathered from cast-off rags, a fitting garment for one who has renounced the world.A passage in the Vinaya Mahavagga Khandaka describes the Buddha instructing his disciple Ananda to design robes for his monks based on the squares, strips, borders and cross-lines of the rice fields in the Magadha countryside of northern India.2 The robe is draped around the torso and covers both shoulders, its red hue further enhanced by a rich green fabric beneath, likely representing both the traditional upper and lower robes (uttarasanga, covering the upper body, and antaravasa, covering the lower body).
This painting is one of the largest surviving Tibetan paintings from any period. Comparable works include a c. 12th-century Buddha painting (201.4 x 114 cm.) in a private collection, and a c. 12th-century painting of Amitayus and Acolytes (259.1 x 175.3 cm.) in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.3 A c. 15th-century painting of Bhaisajyaguru (180 x 141 cm.) is noteworthy for its comparable size as well as its stylistic similarities to the present example, discussed below.4 Also noteworthy is the c. late 14th-century painting of Vaishravana (160 x 99 cm.) in the Musee Guimet, Paris.5. Indeed, the style and composition of the painting indicate a c. 14th-15th-century date.
Registers of figures, including Buddhas, bodhisattvas and other deities, are arranged in borders around the central enthroned Buddha. This compositional device was particularly common in Tibetan paintings before the 15th century, seen for example in a c. 13th-century painting of Maitreya Buddha in a private collection.6 The throne structure too has roots in early Tibetan painting, although here the crocodilian creatures (makara) on the throne bar face in towards the central figure rather than facing away, as is the norm.7 The pattern of scroll above them finds parallels in a c. 14th-century painting.8 Similarities can be found in the treatment of lotus petals in a Nepalese painting dated c. 1450-74, Portrait of Gaganshim Bharo and Wives.9
A c. mid-15th-century painting of Tsongkhapa in the Rubin Museum of Art resembles this work in the disposition of figures around the borders, the large central figure with two standing attendants, and the placement of Tibetan monks just above the standing attendants.10 The Bonhams Buddha is likely to have been painted before the c. late 15th-century painting of Bhaisajyaguru noted above, as the garments and other elements of style are rendered naturalistically when compared with the more baroque treatment of the Bhaisajyaguru painting.11 When compared with the murals of the Kumbum at Gyantse in Central Tibet (c. 1420s-1440s), this work appears roughly comparable and quite possibly earlier.12 Similarities in style and composition can be seen in an undated mural at Saspol in Jammu and Kashmir (Ladakh, once within the west Tibetan cultural sphere), providing evidence for the possibility of a western Tibetan provenance for the painting.13
Tibetan Buddhists regard Shakyamuni as the single greatest authority on the Buddhist teachings, and all orders attempt to trace their spiritual lineage back to the historic founder of the faith. It is difficult, however, to ascertain the particular order or monastic center that commissioned this work. The Tibetan monks that are present do not indicate an obvious association with the Geluk, Kagyu, Sakya or Nyingma orders. And the deities represented do not likewise offer compelling evidence of a particular sectarian association. These anomalies could possibly be explained by a Sino-Tibetan provenance, as the iconographic conventions of a Tibetan Buddhist center in China may have differed from those in the more commonly known and better documented centers of Tibet. In any case, future research will likely yield a more specific provenance for this large and important work.
Jane Casey, January 2015
1. See the same theme represented in a c. 14th-century painting in a private collection: himalayanart.org, item number 89956; and in a c. 15th-century painting in the Rubin Museum of Art, himalayanart.org item number 445.
2. Cited in http://www.shastaabbey.org/about-vestments.html; see also "Kasaya (clothing)" in Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasaya_(clothing).
3. Published, respectively, in Kossak and Singer, Sacred Visions, pp. 73-75; and Pratapaditya Pal, Art of Tibet (Los Angeles, 1990, expanded edition), pl. 7 (P1), pp. 134-35. The dimensions of the LACMA painting differ in various publications, e.g., in Pratpaditya Pal, The Art of Tibet (New York, 1969), p. 131 as 8 ft. 6 in. x 59 in. (259.1 x 149.86 cm.) and in Auboyer et al, Dieux et Demons de l'Himalaya (Paris, 1977), pp. 74-75, it is recorded as 265.6 x 147 cm.
4. Published in Amy Heller, Tibetan Art (Milan, 1999), pls. 93, 94.
5. Published in Kossak and Singer, Sacred Visions (New York, 1998), pp. 182-85.
6. Published in Kossak and Singer, Sacred Visions, pp. 109-11.
7. Compare the throneback in Vairochana and Attendants, a c. first half 14th century painting in a private collection, published in Kossak and Singer, Sacred Visions, pp. 152-53. Note, however, the inward-facing geese (hamsa) on the throneback of a sculpture in the Serkhang of Lhalung in Ladakh, published in Peter van Ham and Aglaja Stirn, The Forgotten Gods of Tibet: Early Buddhist Art in the Western Himalayas, (Paris, 1997), p. 127.
8. E.g., Vairochana and Attendants, a c. first half 14th century painting in a private collection, published in Kossak and Singer, Sacred Visions, pp. 152-53.
9. Published in Pratapaditya Pal,Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure (Chicago, 2003), pp. 68-69.
10. Published in David Jackson, Mirror of the Buddha (New York, 2011), fig 3.17.
11. Amy Heller, Tibetan Art, pls. 93, 94, p. 151. Dr Heller ascribes the painting to approximately contemporary with Gyantse murals c 1420-40s.
12. See the images of Sakyamuni (Temple 1E), and Sadbhujasuklatara (Chapel 2Nb) in Franco Ricca and Erberto Lo Bue, The Great Stupa of Gyantse (London, 1993), pl. 36, p. 151; pl. 78, p. 193.
13. Published in Charles Genoud, Buddhist Wall-Painting of Ladakh, translated by Tom Tillemans (Geneva, 1982), pl. 11 and p. 60.
