A THANGKA OF STHAVIRA RAHULA


TIBET, 18TH CENTURYDistemper on cloth.Himalayan Art Resources item no.61803 Image: 73 x 49 cm (28 3/4 x 19 1.4 in.); With silks: 153 x 79 cm (60 1/4 x 31 1/4 in.)
|Rahula, the son of Shakyamuni, sits on an embroidered textile above a rock. He wears a sumptuous gold brocade robe with an accented collar, and holds his identifying attribute, a jeweled tiara. In the top corners are Shakyamuni and Ushnishavijaya, apt references to his arhat status and perfected wisdom.  The presence of a butterfly net hanging on a tree branch adds playfulness to the composition. Similarly, the meandering pine tree and the plum blossoms play with the composition's balance. Such asymmetry in Tibetan art arrived from the arhat thangkas of the Ming Dynasty. This thangka would have been the tenth painting in a set of sixteen arhats adapted from a Yongle-period set (cf. Simonet & Croës, Splendor of Yongle Painting, Brussels, 2002). A similar set commissioned by the Qianlong emperor from the Yonghegong is published in Wang, Classics of the Forbidden City: Tangka Painting in the Collection of the Palace Museum , Beijing, 2011, p.271, no.226.     Provenance  Private Collection, USA, since 1980s  羅睺羅尊者唐卡 西藏，十八世紀   布本設色。畫心：73 x 49釐米 (28 3/4 x 19 1.4 英吋); 裝裱：153 x 79釐米 (60 1/4 x 31 1/4 英吋)400,000-600,000港元此張唐卡生動描繪了羅睺羅尊者，十六羅漢中釋迦牟尼之子，坐於石上的座墊。其身著華麗，袈裟寬大並繡有金邊，衣領獨特。其手持羅睺羅尊者特有之金冠。畫面上方為釋迦摩尼佛與尊勝佛母，以示羅睺羅尊者的阿羅漢果位與無邊智慧。 樹上懸掛的捕蝶網為畫面增加了許多意趣，盤曲的松樹和茂盛的梅花同樣平衡中和了畫面。此類構圖可追溯到明代的羅漢唐卡，而此張唐卡應效仿一組明代永樂十六羅漢唐卡中的第十張所繪製，詳見Simonet & Croës，《Splendor of Yongle Painting》，布魯塞爾，2002年。類似的作品可參見雍和宮所藏的一幅乾隆皇帝禦製唐卡，詳見《故宮經典：故宮唐卡圖典》，北京，2011年，頁271，226號。 來源 美國私人收藏，自上世紀八十年代