A large thangka of Guanyin and acolytes


Sino-Tibetan, 17th/18th centuryDistemper on cloth, depicting the Goddess of Mercy with a halo, seated on a lotus throne holding a rosary, dressed in red voluminous robes with auspicious shou characters, the undergarment with shuangxi characters, flanked by two attendants, representing Shancai and Longnü, around them issuing from bamboo are various Tibetan deities and Gelug hierarchs, all against a background of ruyi-head clouds. 317cm (124 7/8in) wide x 232cm (91 3/8in) high.
|漢藏風格 十七/十八世紀 彩繪善財龍女拱觀音唐卡The present lot is remarkable for its combination of Chinese and Tibetan styles and themes. Although the orbs of Gelug hierarchs and Tibetan deities, as well as the materials used are firmly Himalayan, the subject of Guanyin (or Avalokiteshvara) wearing distinctly Chinese robes with shou (壽) and shuangxi (囍) characters, flanked by both Longnü and Shancai is more typical of Chinese religious depictions rather than Tibetan. Longnü, daughter of the Dragon King, and Shancai are referred to in literary sources as acolytes of Guanyin. The youths are each associated with an important Buddhist sutra within the Mahayana tradition. Shancai is thus mentioned in the Avatamsaka Sutra as a young pilgrim who studied with learned masters and celestial bodhisattvas, while the Lotus Sutra described Longnü as an eight-year-old girl who attains enlightenment after presenting her precious pearl to the Buddha.Stylistically, the bamboo leaves and and ruyi-head clouds as well as the striking blue-and-green background, were artistic devices incorporated by Tibetan artists from Chinese Arhat and landscape painting since the 15th century. For an extended discussion on the sharing and overlapping between Tibetan and Chinese painters and their depiction of Arhats, see R.Linrothe, Paradise and Plumage: Chinese Connections in Tibetan Arhat Painting, New York, 2004, pp.10-40. For similar details of bamboo in Tibetan paintings of Arhats, see Tangka-Buddhist Painting of Tibet: The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2006, p.215, no.200.