A THANGKA DEPICTING SCENES FROM THE PAST LIVES OF SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA

TIBET, CIRCA 18TH CENTURY

TIBET, CIRCA 18TH CENTURY
Distemper on cloth; recto with gold Tibetan inscriptions identifying the stories within red strips dividing the registers; verso with an 'om ah hum' incantation vivifying the central Shakyamuni, and a single-line Tibetan inscription translated, "Jataka Fourth."
Himalayan Art Resources item no.58961
36 5/8 x 25 3/8 in. (93 x 64.5 cm)

西藏 約十八世紀 釋迦牟尼本生故事唐卡

This painting belongs to a set of eleven thangkas depicting Buddha's past lives, known as the Jataka tales. Many versions of the jatakas have been compiled over the centuries. The current painting is based on the literary work of the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (1284-1339), who added sixty-seven stories to the original thirty-four from the Indian text Jatakamala to form a collection known as the One Hundred Previous Life Stories.

The artist has deftly composed ten episodes proceeding counterclockwise across five horizontal registers surrounding a glowing central image of Buddha Shakyamuni. Each vignette is meticulously illustrated and identified by inscriptions and numbers. The vignette in the upper left corner depicts story number 31 (Sutasoma) from Rangjung Dorje's collection, followed, counter-clockwise, by number 32 (Prince of the Iron House), number 33 (The Buffalo), number 34 (The Woodpecker), number 35 (Lion King), number 36 (Great Diligence), number 37 (The Golden King), number 38 (The Horse), number 39 (The King with Strength in Merit), and finally, number 40 (Bhikshu Marvelous Light) in the upper right corner.

Unlike most jataka paintings, where narrative stories stray across a contiguous landscape, the use of clearly divided rectangular sections and multiple skylines seen here is rather rare, and almost prefigures the graphic novel. Another painting from the same set is in the Zimmerman Family Collection (Pal, Art of the Himalayas, 1991, no.101).

Published:
Melissa Kerin, Artful Beneficence: Highlights from the David R. Nalin Himalayan Art Collection, New York, 2009, no.60.

Exhibited:
Artful Beneficence: Highlights from the David R. Nalin Himalayan Art Collection, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 12 June – 9 November 2009.

Provenance:
Ex-David R. Nalin Collection