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A THANGKA OF ARHAT NAGASENA
SCHOOL OF CHOYING DORJE, EASTERN TIBET OR YUNNAN PROVINCE, 17TH/18TH CENTURY Himalayan Art Resources item no.90513 38 7/8 x 20 5/8 in. (73.1 x 52.4 cm)
注脚
確映多傑風格 藏東或雲南 十七/十八世紀 那迦犀尊者唐卡Tibetan arhat paintings form a special genre borrowing heavily from the Chinese arhat tradition. Yet, compared to most Tibetan thangkas, this painting has an even stronger Chinese aesthetic, adopting not only traditional figural and landscape elements, but also Chinese brushwork techniques and the medium of monochromatic ink on silk. In fluid lines, spontaneous ink wash, and wet dots, this remarkable painting creates a dynamic image of Arhat Nagasena sitting on a craggy rock in front of rolling waves. One of the Sixteen Great Arhats, he is best known for his conversations with the Indo-Greek king, Menander I (r.165/155-130 BCE). Nagasena is often depicted holding a staff and a vase. Here, the vase, which is decorated with peonies and a phoenix, is carried by a charismatic gnome who pours an ocean from it, drawing the amiable attention of an auspicious dragon. A leading expert on the life and artwork of the Tenth Karmapa, Choying Dorje (1604-1674), Karl Debreczeny identifies this and eleven other paintings that form part of, or represent copies of, an arhat set created by Choying Dorje—Tibet's most eccentric artist. All painted in this monochromatic style, nine of the eleven thangkas are preserved at Palpung monastery in Eastern Tibet, while the remaining two are at the Brooklyn Museum and the Rubin Museum of Art (Debreczeny, The Black Hat Eccentric New York, 2012, pp.194-201). Debreczeny argues against an alternative attribution to Situ Panchen (1700-1774), the founder of the Palpung painting style, made by the scholar Karma Gyaltsen and some monks at the Palpung. Instead, referring to the Tenth Karmapa's biographies, he concludes that the group represents, "copies that Situ commissioned in the eighteenth century based on Choying Dorje's paintings or products of his workshop" (ibid., p.202). The Karma Kagyu order headed by the Karmapa lineage was once the wealthiest in Tibet until it lost a civil war with a Gelug-Mongol alliance. In 1645, leading what little remained of his order, Choying Dorje fled Tibet, eventually taking refuge for 29 years in the Chinese city of Lijiang (Yunnan province). There, according to his biographies, he created a copy of a famous set of silk arhat paintings kept at Gangkar monastery in Sichuan province called the Drakthokma Arhats ("Arhats atop Rocks"). In another instance, he is recorded tracing his set with heavy ink, as if making further iterations. Debrecezny argues this Nagasena, together with the identified group, represent iterations of the Tenth Karmapa's Drakthokma Arhats. Further supporting the attribution, this Nagasena has a strikingly similar composition, including a number of idiosyncratic elements, that a painting of the same subject in the Lijiang Municipal Museum shares, which is clearly in the style Choying Dorje is best known for (ibid., p.194, fig.7.2). Published Karl Debreczeny, The Black Hat Eccentric: Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa, New York, 2012, pp.194, fig.7.1 (also detailed across pages 192 & 193). Provenance The Rezk Collection The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, deaccessioned in 2020 Concept Art Gallery, 10 June 2020, lot 49