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Lot Essay
The following three thangkas illustrating Vajrayogini, Tara, and Hayagriva belong to set of paintings from Bhutan made in the nineteenth century. Stylistic parities with five other Bhutanese paintings once part of the Jucker Collection which sold at Sotheby's (H. Kreijger, Tibetan Paintings, Boston, 2001, pp. 128-131, no. 49; Sotheby's, New York, 28 March 2006, lots 126-130), confirm the coherence of the set in addition to their connection to the Drukpa Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism and a source text for these images. On stylistic analysis alone, it may be difficult to distinguish this conclusively as Bhutanese, but together with the references of sect and textual reference, these three paintings, and those five others known to the set, illustrate the strength and continuity of the Drukpa Kagyu school within Bhutan.
Although dependent on Tibetan measurements of hierarchical compositions and symmetrical arrangements, some characteristics of Bhutanese painting style are exhibited among all the paintings including vibrant colors, clouds, flora and fauna, and composite layouts. Saturated colors of blues, greens, orange, reds, and pink depict an intensified palette. Varieties of clouds - cumulus, stratocumulus, and stratus - appear in greens, blues, orange, gray, and pink. A strong articulation of line is illustrated in the gold patterns of brocades, facial features, clouds, and foliage, offering a heightened clarity and distinction to each feature. Although shared elements exist among all the paintings in the set, it is clear that certain elements are more cohesive between specific paintings. For example the blue stratus clouds are illustrated in the Vajrayogini, Tara, Ekajati (HAR 89181), and Mahabala (HAR 89180), and the spiraling flames are depicted in the Hayagriva, Ekajati, and Mahabala, suggesting the making of these paintings by a regional atelier, rather than a single artist (Sotheby's, New York, 28 March 2006, lots 126 and 127).
Featured in the upper left corner of Shadakshari Lokeshvara is a Drukpa Lama, identified by the high-peaked, tall fan-shaped hat (Sotheby's, New York, 28 March 2006, lot 130). It is this feature that definitively associates the painting with the most prominent Buddhist order within Bhutan beginning in the seventeenth century when Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594–1651) fled Tibet and established the Drukpa Kagyu as the dominant tradition. Support for this developing lineage in Bhutan included texts and their traditional accompaniment of imagery, such as this set of paintings, which is based on the manuscript "An Oceans of Methods of Accomplishment." Like many Tibetan Buddhist texts, the original scripture can be traced to India in the eleventh century, but the illustrated version here is based on an elaboration by the 9th Je Khenpo of Bhutan, Sakya Rinchen (1710-1759), where he extends the pantheon of deities. Each of these figures corresponds to the text and is identified by gold inscriptions in each of these thangkas.
At the center of this thangka, three-faced, red-bodied Hayagriva stands in an aureole of licking flames, with six arms carrying a bow, arrow, vajra, and lotus. Piled over all three faces are dense, layered waves of hair from which emerge a blue-bodied Akshobhya carrying an upright vajra in his left hand. A green silk scarf weaves around his body, with garlands of intertwining snakes, and a tiger skin tied around his waist. Like the other fully wrathful deities from the set, including Mahabala and Ekajati (HAR 89180 and 89181), the composition is one that is densely arranged. Dense, crisply articulated flames in a rightward sway surround each figure aside from the Black Yamari positioned upper center right, who shares a prabha design with the one featured in the thangka of Vajravarahi. Like the Vajravarahi which does not display her identifying boar's head, Hayagriva’s horsehead is not depicted emerging from his tufts of hair, though the smaller emanations of the deity do include this feature.
Although dependent on Tibetan measurements of hierarchical compositions and symmetrical arrangements, some characteristics of Bhutanese painting style are exhibited among all the paintings including vibrant colors, clouds, flora and fauna, and composite layouts. Saturated colors of blues, greens, orange, reds, and pink depict an intensified palette. Varieties of clouds - cumulus, stratocumulus, and stratus - appear in greens, blues, orange, gray, and pink. A strong articulation of line is illustrated in the gold patterns of brocades, facial features, clouds, and foliage, offering a heightened clarity and distinction to each feature. Although shared elements exist among all the paintings in the set, it is clear that certain elements are more cohesive between specific paintings. For example the blue stratus clouds are illustrated in the Vajrayogini, Tara, Ekajati (HAR 89181), and Mahabala (HAR 89180), and the spiraling flames are depicted in the Hayagriva, Ekajati, and Mahabala, suggesting the making of these paintings by a regional atelier, rather than a single artist (Sotheby's, New York, 28 March 2006, lots 126 and 127).
Featured in the upper left corner of Shadakshari Lokeshvara is a Drukpa Lama, identified by the high-peaked, tall fan-shaped hat (Sotheby's, New York, 28 March 2006, lot 130). It is this feature that definitively associates the painting with the most prominent Buddhist order within Bhutan beginning in the seventeenth century when Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594–1651) fled Tibet and established the Drukpa Kagyu as the dominant tradition. Support for this developing lineage in Bhutan included texts and their traditional accompaniment of imagery, such as this set of paintings, which is based on the manuscript "An Oceans of Methods of Accomplishment." Like many Tibetan Buddhist texts, the original scripture can be traced to India in the eleventh century, but the illustrated version here is based on an elaboration by the 9th Je Khenpo of Bhutan, Sakya Rinchen (1710-1759), where he extends the pantheon of deities. Each of these figures corresponds to the text and is identified by gold inscriptions in each of these thangkas.
At the center of this thangka, three-faced, red-bodied Hayagriva stands in an aureole of licking flames, with six arms carrying a bow, arrow, vajra, and lotus. Piled over all three faces are dense, layered waves of hair from which emerge a blue-bodied Akshobhya carrying an upright vajra in his left hand. A green silk scarf weaves around his body, with garlands of intertwining snakes, and a tiger skin tied around his waist. Like the other fully wrathful deities from the set, including Mahabala and Ekajati (HAR 89180 and 89181), the composition is one that is densely arranged. Dense, crisply articulated flames in a rightward sway surround each figure aside from the Black Yamari positioned upper center right, who shares a prabha design with the one featured in the thangka of Vajravarahi. Like the Vajravarahi which does not display her identifying boar's head, Hayagriva’s horsehead is not depicted emerging from his tufts of hair, though the smaller emanations of the deity do include this feature.