RELIGION AND RITUAL VARIOUS PROPERTIES
A RARE SILK BROCADE HANGING OF THE BUDDHIST PARADISE, LAMPAS QIANLONG

Details
A RARE SILK BROCADE HANGING OF THE BUDDHIST PARADISE, LAMPAS QIANLONG

Finely woven to the central panel with the Buddha in three mudras, representing the Past, Present and Future, each figure seated in meditation on a lotus throne, above an assembly of the Eighteen Luohans and the guardians of the four directions amid scrolling clouds, all below the sun and moon discs enclosing a cockerel and a hare and eight asparas bearing tributes, inscribed to the top Wu liang shou zun fou, 'Revered Buddha of Measureless Long Life', a title for the Buddha amitayus, framed by an elaborate lotus-scroll border
56 x 28 in. (142 x 71 cm.) framed

Lot Essay

This hanging formed part of a set. Compare with other examples of identical pattern from important public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, accession no. T.230-1965; the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, accession no. CBS 114; and the Musee Historique des Tissus, Lyons, accession no. 28590.

A hanging of larger size, but with a similar border pattern depicting 'The Pure Land of the Western Paradise', is illustrated by Shun Jiajin, Treasures of the Forbidden City, no. 97, where it is recorded that the textile was based on a painting by the Qianlong artist Ding Guanpeng and was originally housed in The Palace of Heavenly Purity and was part of the Court collection of treasures. Another textile depicting this subject, perhaps the one just sited, was included in the exhibition held at the Musee du Petit Palais, La Cite Interdite, 1996-1997, Catalogue, no. 50.

(US$60,000-65,000)

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