A RARE GROUP OF FOUR SILK BROCADE BUDDHIST PANELS

QING DYNASTY, 17TH/18TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE GROUP OF FOUR SILK BROCADE BUDDHIST PANELS
QING DYNASTY, 17TH/18TH CENTURY
Comprising four finely woven silk brocade rectangular panels, all detailed with additional gilt-threads: the first, depicting a Dakini framed within an aureole, standing with one leg on a lotus pedestal, the other raised in an attitude of dance, ardhaparyanka, holding in the corresponding hand a bowl containing a flower, the other hand in a gesture of vitarka mudra, the deity encircled by a leafy vine, below a network of beaded jewellery chains suspending from mythical animal-masks; the second panel, depicting a Dakini in a similar pose, holding a shell in hand; the third, is a single full-bloom lotus growing from a leafy stem; and the fourth, an ambrosia flask on a lotus pedestal.
28 1/4 x 23 1/4 in. (71.6 x 59 cm.), individual perspex frames

Lot Essay

Images of these dancing deities, or offering goddesses, normally appear on the bottom of Buddhist panels such as those embroidered on a large thangka dated to the Yongle period, included in the exhibition, Heavens' Embroidered Cloths, One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong, 1995, illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 131, no. 25, and sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 April 2002, lot 542. Although beaded jewellery chains appear as part of bodily adornments on Buddhist sculptures its general application as a decorative motif did not find favour until the mid-Ming period onwards. On textiles, examples of this type of beading is found as tassels on canopies on a woven silk tapestry depicting the Buddhist 'Western Paradise', dated to the Qianlong period, in the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, illustrated by Zhu Jiajin, Treasures of the Forbidden City, 1986, p. 245, no. 97; and on a kesi panel of Amitayus, also dated to the Qianlong period, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 April 1999, lot 525.

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