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Lot Essay
Remarkable for the extraordinary richness and exceptional preservation of its colours, this magnificent brocade thangka depicts Avalokiteshvara enthroned within an elaborate celestial landscape populated by auspicious and mythical creatures. Woven in brilliant orange, golden yellow, emerald and soft green, and pale blue against a field of deep cobalt, and richly articulated with gold, the textile retains a remarkable chromatic intensity. The sumptuous palette, together with the lavish employment of gold and the considerable technical sophistication of the weave, places the present work among an exceptional group of Buddhist textiles associated with the finest Chinese workshops of the late Yuan and early Ming periods.
Avalokiteshvara appears at the centre of the composition as an eternally youthful bodhisattva, traditionally conceived as a prince of sixteen years. Seated in vajraparyankasana upon a magnificent multi-tiered lotus throne, he extends his right hand in the gesture of supreme generosity while the left is raised in blessing. Lotus stems held delicately in his hands rise and blossom at either shoulder. His princely appearance is enhanced by sumptuous ornaments and garments: an elegant green scarf cascades over the shoulders and encircles the arms, while an intensely coloured orange lower garment is secured at the hips by a jewelled belt.
The brilliance of these colours is fundamental to the visual impact of the textile. Against the profound cobalt-blue ground, the saturated orange and yellow passages possess an almost luminous quality, while greens and pale blues provide cooler accents throughout the composition. Gold outlining both defines the figures and enriches the surface, transforming the woven image as light moves across it. The unusually fresh survival of this sophisticated colour scheme allows the original conception of the textile—one predicated upon dramatic contrasts between colour, gold and the dark blue ground—to be appreciated to exceptional effect.
The central deity is enclosed within a luxuriant floral framework inhabited by a remarkable assemblage of auspicious beings. White elephants, lions, qilin, kinnara and makara emerge amid the scrolling vegetation, creating a richly animated border between the terrestrial and celestial realms. Above, two apsara-like figures flank a commanding garuda, while multicoloured clouds of varied and imaginative form further enliven the upper register. The composition was originally enclosed on all four sides by a gold-woven inscription in Lantsa script, providing a brilliant epigraphic frame to the sacred image.
Although the bodhisattva lacks the more explicit attributes by which Avalokiteshvara is immediately recognisable in other manifestations, comparison with related sculptural representations supports the identification. The absence of attributes normally associated with such bodhisattvas as Maitreya, Manjushri and Vajrapani further suggests that the central figure represents Avalokiteshvara in a form associated with the Mahayana sutra tradition. The apparent ambiguity is itself significant, since it belongs to a fascinating moment in the translation of Tibetan Buddhist imagery into the highly specialised medium of Chinese woven silk.
The present thangka belongs to an exceedingly rare surviving group evidently produced from the same design or within the same weaving tradition. Three closely related textiles were published in Heavens' Embroidered Cloths: One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. nos. 28–30. Related examples are recorded in the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Chris Hall Collection Trust, while another textile employing the same elaborate floral setting and Lantsa-script border depicts Vairochana Buddha. The repetition of the design is important evidence for an organised workshop practice rather than the manufacture of an isolated devotional textile.
As John Vollmer has discussed in connection with this group, discrepancies in Buddhist iconography occasionally occur in Chinese woven images of the Yuan period. Such inconsistencies may be understood within the extraordinary cultural circumstances surrounding textile manufacture under Mongol rule. The Yuan court drew skilled craftsmen from across its enormous territories, including weaving communities originating in western Central Asia. Designs rooted in Buddhist traditions could consequently pass through the hands of highly accomplished textile specialists who were not necessarily equally conversant with every distinction of Buddhist iconography. The result was an extraordinary synthesis: religious imagery of Tibetan and Himalayan inspiration translated through weaving technologies and decorative traditions that had travelled across the Mongol world.
The present thangka is particularly distinguished within this context by both the coherence of its iconography and the sophistication of its execution. The profuse use of gold, complex brocade technique and remarkable density of ornament point to production at the highest level, plausibly within an imperial or imperially sponsored atelier. Textiles of such extraordinary expense and complexity would have been prestigious objects of diplomatic as well as religious significance, and the present work may well have been intended as an important gift to a Tibetan religious or aristocratic recipient.
Its dating occupies the fascinating transitional period between the Yuan dynasty and the emergence of the great imperial Buddhist commissions of the early Ming. Certain features—notably the treatment of the elaborate lotus throne—anticipate the formal language encountered in Buddhist art produced under the Yongle Emperor (r. 1402–1424). Under Yongle, imperial patronage of Tibetan Buddhism stimulated an extraordinary refinement in Buddhist sculpture and textile production, in which iconographic exactitude was allied to superb craftsmanship.
The combination of these stylistic characteristics with the historical development of Chinese Buddhist weaving suggests a date in the late 14th to early 15th century. It is precisely this position at the threshold between Yuan cosmopolitanism and the sophisticated Buddhist patronage of the early Ming court that gives the textile particular historical importance. More immediately, however, it is the thangka's exceptional aesthetic presence that distinguishes it: the deep, saturated cobalt ground, glowing oranges and yellows, vivid greens, delicate blues and abundant gold remain astonishingly rich and vibrant, preserving to a remarkable degree the splendour with which this monumental woven image was originally intended to be seen.
Avalokiteshvara appears at the centre of the composition as an eternally youthful bodhisattva, traditionally conceived as a prince of sixteen years. Seated in vajraparyankasana upon a magnificent multi-tiered lotus throne, he extends his right hand in the gesture of supreme generosity while the left is raised in blessing. Lotus stems held delicately in his hands rise and blossom at either shoulder. His princely appearance is enhanced by sumptuous ornaments and garments: an elegant green scarf cascades over the shoulders and encircles the arms, while an intensely coloured orange lower garment is secured at the hips by a jewelled belt.
The brilliance of these colours is fundamental to the visual impact of the textile. Against the profound cobalt-blue ground, the saturated orange and yellow passages possess an almost luminous quality, while greens and pale blues provide cooler accents throughout the composition. Gold outlining both defines the figures and enriches the surface, transforming the woven image as light moves across it. The unusually fresh survival of this sophisticated colour scheme allows the original conception of the textile—one predicated upon dramatic contrasts between colour, gold and the dark blue ground—to be appreciated to exceptional effect.
The central deity is enclosed within a luxuriant floral framework inhabited by a remarkable assemblage of auspicious beings. White elephants, lions, qilin, kinnara and makara emerge amid the scrolling vegetation, creating a richly animated border between the terrestrial and celestial realms. Above, two apsara-like figures flank a commanding garuda, while multicoloured clouds of varied and imaginative form further enliven the upper register. The composition was originally enclosed on all four sides by a gold-woven inscription in Lantsa script, providing a brilliant epigraphic frame to the sacred image.
Although the bodhisattva lacks the more explicit attributes by which Avalokiteshvara is immediately recognisable in other manifestations, comparison with related sculptural representations supports the identification. The absence of attributes normally associated with such bodhisattvas as Maitreya, Manjushri and Vajrapani further suggests that the central figure represents Avalokiteshvara in a form associated with the Mahayana sutra tradition. The apparent ambiguity is itself significant, since it belongs to a fascinating moment in the translation of Tibetan Buddhist imagery into the highly specialised medium of Chinese woven silk.
The present thangka belongs to an exceedingly rare surviving group evidently produced from the same design or within the same weaving tradition. Three closely related textiles were published in Heavens' Embroidered Cloths: One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. nos. 28–30. Related examples are recorded in the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Chris Hall Collection Trust, while another textile employing the same elaborate floral setting and Lantsa-script border depicts Vairochana Buddha. The repetition of the design is important evidence for an organised workshop practice rather than the manufacture of an isolated devotional textile.
As John Vollmer has discussed in connection with this group, discrepancies in Buddhist iconography occasionally occur in Chinese woven images of the Yuan period. Such inconsistencies may be understood within the extraordinary cultural circumstances surrounding textile manufacture under Mongol rule. The Yuan court drew skilled craftsmen from across its enormous territories, including weaving communities originating in western Central Asia. Designs rooted in Buddhist traditions could consequently pass through the hands of highly accomplished textile specialists who were not necessarily equally conversant with every distinction of Buddhist iconography. The result was an extraordinary synthesis: religious imagery of Tibetan and Himalayan inspiration translated through weaving technologies and decorative traditions that had travelled across the Mongol world.
The present thangka is particularly distinguished within this context by both the coherence of its iconography and the sophistication of its execution. The profuse use of gold, complex brocade technique and remarkable density of ornament point to production at the highest level, plausibly within an imperial or imperially sponsored atelier. Textiles of such extraordinary expense and complexity would have been prestigious objects of diplomatic as well as religious significance, and the present work may well have been intended as an important gift to a Tibetan religious or aristocratic recipient.
Its dating occupies the fascinating transitional period between the Yuan dynasty and the emergence of the great imperial Buddhist commissions of the early Ming. Certain features—notably the treatment of the elaborate lotus throne—anticipate the formal language encountered in Buddhist art produced under the Yongle Emperor (r. 1402–1424). Under Yongle, imperial patronage of Tibetan Buddhism stimulated an extraordinary refinement in Buddhist sculpture and textile production, in which iconographic exactitude was allied to superb craftsmanship.
The combination of these stylistic characteristics with the historical development of Chinese Buddhist weaving suggests a date in the late 14th to early 15th century. It is precisely this position at the threshold between Yuan cosmopolitanism and the sophisticated Buddhist patronage of the early Ming court that gives the textile particular historical importance. More immediately, however, it is the thangka's exceptional aesthetic presence that distinguishes it: the deep, saturated cobalt ground, glowing oranges and yellows, vivid greens, delicate blues and abundant gold remain astonishingly rich and vibrant, preserving to a remarkable degree the splendour with which this monumental woven image was originally intended to be seen.