A SET OF TEN MEDICAL PAINTINGS FROM THE BLUE BERYL SERIES TIBET, 19TH CENTURYA SET OF TEN MEDICAL PAINTINGS FROM THE BLUE BERYL SERIESTIBET, 19TH CENTURYEach painted on a cream colored ground in polychrome colors with red borders and labeled in Tibetan with further inscriptions in cartouches underneath.Himalayan Art Resources item no. 4704 Each approximately 72.5 x 59.5 cm. (28 1/2 x 23 1/2 in.) with three in a horizontal format西藏 十九世紀 《藍琉璃》曼唐十幅The Gyushi, or Four Tantras, for which these paintings are based, remains the most foundational textual source on Tibetan medical practices dating back to the 12th century. It describes the relationship between the body and the five elements (water, fire, earth, air, and space), the nyepa, or bodily fluids, and the environment in the form of a poetic dialogue between two sages, Rigpa Yeshe, the teacher, and Yilekye, his chief disciple. Divided into four principal texts, each chapter covers one medical topic initiated by a question posed by Yilekye to Rigpa Yeshe. Unlike Western medicine, Tibetan medical practice extends beyond the physicality of the body, understanding health and longevity to be inextricably linked to the balance between the mind and body. This non-linear approach where systems of the body and mind overlap as environments within environments—both seen and unseen, as illustrated in the first of these images—comprehend health to include Buddhist practice, ritual, and divination. Much like the texts themselves, these illustrations are lyrical and poetic, and this whimsical blending of symbols, bodily functions, medical practices, daily life, and otherworldly beings which tell of mystical encounters is presented in stunning detail.During the 17th century, a set of seventy-nine medical drawings illustrating the Blue Beryl commentary on the Four Tantras, composed by Desi Sangye Gyatso, then regent to the Fifth Dalai Lama, were created. The tenacious scope of these medical drawings continues to constitute both a medical and artistic legacy that has been widely copied in subsequent centuries and for which these illustrations are directly based. What is depicted in these illustrations includes the following: a) a diagram of divination through urinalysis; b) moxibustion (burning of moxa or other substances on the skin to treat diseases or to produce analgesia) and points for minor surgery; c) moxibustion according to the 'King of the Moon' treatise; d) bloodletting channels and moxibustion; e) a posterior view of vulnerable points; f) localization of the purulence of the viscera; g) course of lifespan principle (through capillary system); h) frontispiece outlines of treatment and diagnosis with depictions of Bhaishajyaguru; and i) an anterior view of vulnerable points.It is clear from these few illustrations why the 17th-century drawings had such an enormous impact, for each feels intricate and subtle. The elaborate mandala depicts worlds within worlds surrounded by the harvesting and making of medicine from plants in a blend of botany, herbal medicine, ethereality, and ritual. The Medicine Buddha depicted within swaying yellow and blue leaves with multi-colored stems appears as a botanical dream state. The colorful intersecting sashes whirling around the body in the illustrated channels of bloodletting and moxibustion is a merging between anatomical structure and flowing movement. Other examples of these illustrations are further referenced in A. Aris (ed.), Tibetan Medical Paintings: Illustrations to the Blue Beryl Treatise of Sangye Gyamtso (1653-1705), New York, 1992.Provenance:Christie's, New York, 18 September 2002, lot 151