EASTERN TIBET, 18TH CENTURY

Along with several other paintings from the collection of Ralph Glasgal, including lots 405, 408, 409, 410, and 412, the present painting closely follows the Situ Panchen style of painting popular in Eastern Tibet and established in the eighteenth century by Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne (1700-1774). Characteristics of the style include an open, schematic composition set within a sparsely-populated landscape, horizontally-rendered clouds and triangular mountains, and the use of the unpainted textile as a ground.
The present painting depicts the peaceful deities of the Bardo, the Tibetan conception of the state between death and rebirth. There are many different Bardo traditions within Tibetan Buddhism, with no established precedent for depicting the transitory state. In some traditions, peaceful and wrathful deities arranged in a mandala-like composition are meant to convey the phenomena experienced between life and death.