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Lot Essay
Seated on a blue-petaled lotus throne is the deity of long-life, Amitayus who holds the vase of immortality cupped in both hands. His golden aura radiates out in rippling lines over a blue and green mandorla framed in foliate gold bands. Projected across a red sky and landscape of dragon-styled clouds, ruffle-edged leaves, waterfalls, mountainous cliffs and peaks are replicated images of the golden deity each floating on top of white-petaled lotus.
Thangkas with multiplied deities set over a single colored ground, often of red or gold, appear in the seventeenth century. In those red ground examples, the cloned emanations are portrayed in gold and fill the entire surface against the flattened red background (HAR 71, 2170, 4019). These painting less commonly portray detailed landscapes; when included, they evoke deities who appear to arise from out of a celestial realm. This feature, though to a lesser degree than the painting here, appears on a red-ground Tara and shows foliage, rippling clouds in gold lines, and a floating mountain set just around the central figure (HAR 3314469). Another from the same series or workshop as the present painting also depicts Amitayus and his diminutive emanations in an identical layout set against a red sky and landscape of jewel-toned swirling clouds, leafy foliage, and jagged mountains (National Gallery Prague,Vm 2615).
Thangkas with multiplied deities set over a single colored ground, often of red or gold, appear in the seventeenth century. In those red ground examples, the cloned emanations are portrayed in gold and fill the entire surface against the flattened red background (HAR 71, 2170, 4019). These painting less commonly portray detailed landscapes; when included, they evoke deities who appear to arise from out of a celestial realm. This feature, though to a lesser degree than the painting here, appears on a red-ground Tara and shows foliage, rippling clouds in gold lines, and a floating mountain set just around the central figure (HAR 3314469). Another from the same series or workshop as the present painting also depicts Amitayus and his diminutive emanations in an identical layout set against a red sky and landscape of jewel-toned swirling clouds, leafy foliage, and jagged mountains (National Gallery Prague,Vm 2615).