拍品专文
The results of ETH Zurich Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics carbon 14 dating test number ETH-42989 is consistent with the dating of this lot.
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A WOVEN ICONOGRAPHY –IMPERIAL GIFT TO A LIVING BUDDHAIn 1642, shortly before the reign of the first Qing dynasty emperor, Shunzhi (r. 1644-61), the Gelugpa monastic order achieved political dominance in central Tibet. It was during the reign of the Shunzhi Emperor that an imperial invitation to visit Beijing was proposed exclusively to the Gelugpa hierarch, who was the de facto ruler of Tibet. The Fifth Dalai Lama left for Beijing in 1652, and returned in 1654/55, during which time he received many Imperial gifts from the Qing court. This historical event was recorded in a mural on the east wall of the West Audience Hall in the Red Palace of the Potala Palace, Lhasa (fig. 1). The current kesi hanging, in view of the emphasis on Gelugpa iconography in the central portion and its excellent quality, was indeed very possible to have been one of these gifts to the Fifth Dalai Lama during or after his historic visit to Beijing in the mid-seventeenth century.The black Six-Arm Mahakala, one of the most important Tibetan protective deities, is especially venerated by the Gelugpa monastic school, whose founder, Tsongkhapa, is portrayed above the Mahakala, along with the Buddha Vajradhara and another Gelugpa monk. The configuration of all of the deities, except for Lha mo, is to be found in a gouache on cotton thangka of the Six-Arm Mahakala of Wisdom, which was studied by Giuseppi Tucci in Tibetan Painted Scrolls, vol. 2, Rome, 1949, pl. 195, and attributed to the seventeenth century by Marilyn Rhie and Robert Thurman in Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, New York, 1991, pp. 296-97, no. 112. This thangka also includes the figure of Tsongkhapa, as well as two other Gelugpa lamas, seated above the Mahakala. Despite the gruesome demeanour of the fierce deities, the overall impression is highly decorative. The composition is highly ornamental and hierarchical, centred on the overly large Black Six-Arm Mahakala, with each subsidiary figure in its designated space, yet the figures themselves are very dynamic in stance. This composition is found in many thangka attributed to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in central Tibet.The kesi weaving technique of this thangka indicates that it was a product of a highly skilled atelier inside China. The kesi weaving technique was already known as early as the Tang dynasty (618-907), and was possibly invented in the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). It was used during the Song dynasty (960-1279) for pictorial depictions. Kesi with Tibetan Buddhist iconography were produced in Xixia during the twelfth to thirteenth centuries, and then in China during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) when imperial veneration of Tibetan Buddhism was at its apogee and when kesi was the technique of choice for imperial gifts. For such an example, refer to a kesi Vajrabhairava Mandala in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1992.54 (fig. 2). The interest in Tibetan Buddhism continued during the years of the early Ming dynasty, especially in the early fifteenth century, and it was during this time that fantastic embroidered and kesi thangka with Tibetan Buddhist iconography were created for the early Ming dynasty emperors, Yongle (1403-1425) and Xuande (1426-1435), to present to Tibetan Buddhist masters of the Shakya, Kagyupa and Gelugpa schools, who had been invited to Beijing, as evidenced by a highly important imperial embroidered silk thangka, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26 November 2014, lot 3001 (fig. 3). However, by the end of the Ming dynasty there was a decline in interest in Tibetan Buddhism, as it was not actively promoted by the late Ming emperors. The kesi technique did continue to be used during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), notably in the making of rank badges, costumes and wall hangings. By the seventeenth century kesi hangings with figural and floral designs, as well as Buddhist iconography, were being produced and continued to be popular, and to have imperial favour, throughout the Qing dynasty. The present hanging is exceptional, and possibly unique, in that both the centralthangka and the surround are executed in the kesi technique.
A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT IMPERIAL KESI SIX-ARM MAHAKALA THANGKA
QING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY
细节
A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT IMPERIAL KESI SIX-ARM MAHAKALA THANGKA
QING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY
The thangka is finely woven in the centre with the ferocious black figure of the Six-Arm Mahakala of Wisdom shown trampling Ganesh and holding a kapala and a kartrika in his primary hands, as well as further attributes of skull-shaped prayer beads, a trident, a damaru drum and a vajra rope in his subsidiary hands. He is adorned with jewellery, a five-skull crown and a garland of skulls, and wears an elephant hide draped over his shoulders, a billowing blue scarf and a tiger skin around his hips. Above him is the seated figure of the Buddha Vajradhara, flanked by two Gelugpa monks, one representing Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa monastic school. Below the Black Mahakala is the White Six-Arm Mahakala of Wisdom and the deities of his entourage including a four-armed aspect of Lha Mo mounted on a white horse. This central panel is within a narrow red border and an outer field of dense multicolored clouds interspersed with auspicious objects and populated with numerous black birds and various animals, as well as with the stylised incantation ‘Om’ in gold thread within a red circle positioned directly above the head of a special red Garuda deity flanked by two small flying Garudas, two nagas with human heads and torsos, two makaras in the upper section and an offering of cones of butter-flour on a gold tray in the bottom section.
30 3/4 x 15 in. (78 x 38 cm.)
QING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY
The thangka is finely woven in the centre with the ferocious black figure of the Six-Arm Mahakala of Wisdom shown trampling Ganesh and holding a kapala and a kartrika in his primary hands, as well as further attributes of skull-shaped prayer beads, a trident, a damaru drum and a vajra rope in his subsidiary hands. He is adorned with jewellery, a five-skull crown and a garland of skulls, and wears an elephant hide draped over his shoulders, a billowing blue scarf and a tiger skin around his hips. Above him is the seated figure of the Buddha Vajradhara, flanked by two Gelugpa monks, one representing Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa monastic school. Below the Black Mahakala is the White Six-Arm Mahakala of Wisdom and the deities of his entourage including a four-armed aspect of Lha Mo mounted on a white horse. This central panel is within a narrow red border and an outer field of dense multicolored clouds interspersed with auspicious objects and populated with numerous black birds and various animals, as well as with the stylised incantation ‘Om’ in gold thread within a red circle positioned directly above the head of a special red Garuda deity flanked by two small flying Garudas, two nagas with human heads and torsos, two makaras in the upper section and an offering of cones of butter-flour on a gold tray in the bottom section.
30 3/4 x 15 in. (78 x 38 cm.)
来源
Spink and Son Ltd., London, 1992
出版
Spink and Son Ltd., Tibetan Art at Spink, London, 1992, no. 38
荣誉呈献
Sibley Ngai