A THANGKA DEPICTING SUBINDA, THE RAISED PAGODA LUOHAN, 19TH CENTURY

A THANGKA DEPICTING SUBINDA, THE RAISED PAGODA LUOHAN, 19TH CENTURY Sino-Tibetan. Finely painted with the arhat seated on a cushion and holding up a tray from which a pagoda rises, under a blossoming prunus tree, by a table altar with offerings attended to by two monks below an overhanging craggy rock, his shoes on a low table before him. All below Samantabhadra seated on his elephant mount flanked by blue- and white-skinned attendants and a devotee as well as Buddha standing beneath a rainbow surrounded by attendant deities and a monk, amid swirling clouds. Within a verdant landscape with a meandering river, flanked to one side by blue Mahakala and to the other by three seated monks. Provenance: German trade, acquired from a private estate in Berlin. The reverse of the frame with an old label, reading ‘Koheji’s Arabesque Gallery. Picture Framing. Manama, Bahrain’. Condition: Very good condition with minor wear, minimal soiling, minute creasing, and light flaking. Dimensions: Image size76.9 x 51.2 cm, Size incl. frame 78.8 x 54 cm Distemper and gold on cloth. Framed behind glass. Expert’s note: The present thangka stems from a set of sixteen or eighteen depicting arhats. One such set, following an original composition tracing back to the Yongle period, is held within the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Zangchuan Fojiao Tangka-Gugong Bowuyuan Cang Wenwu Zhenpin Quanji, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 189, no. 175. Literature comparison: Compare two related thangkas of Arhats, dated to the 19th century, in the Rubin Museum of Art, accession numbers C2002.16.2 and C2002.16.3, each illustrated in Himalayan Art Resources, item numbers 65102 and 65103. Note the rockwork on these thangkas, which despite being less colorful is still quite similar as that found on the present lot.