MONGOLIA, LATE 18TH-EARLY 19TH CENTURY

This large and graceful depiction of Sitatara is remarkably refined, with elaborate gold designs covering her softly draped garments, thin spiral motifs illuminating her halo, and small strands of hair escaping her jewel-crested diadem. A small image of Amitabha sits in a rainbow aureole just above her chignon, flanked by dakinis offering water or amrita and lotuses which fall in front of her radiant halo. The manner in which the stamen of the lotus petals are rendered is more common among Mongolian works of Tibetan Buddhist art.