680 - Thangka with Three-faced, Six-armed White Deity on Lotus Throne, Scroll Painting, 20th Century

Thangka with Three-faced, Six-armed White Deity on Lotus Throne, Scroll Painting, 20th Century Tempera on linen, Tibetan Buddhist scroll painting, in the centre a white, three-faced and six-armed female deity in a blue robe seated on a lotus throne, the side faces yellow and red, with tall gold-coloured crown finials, necklace and bracelets, in the hands a string of beads and a vase in the lap, before a black mandorla with gold-coloured ornamental ring and light blue nimbus, in the landscape ground green hills, trees, snow mountains, a river, large pink blossoms, lower left a pavilion with seated figure, lower right a seated figure under a tree, two pink deer, above two small deities in nimbi, 20th century, age-appropriate condition, paint abrasion, image 59.5x44.5 cm (HxW), behind glass, framed, overall 75x55 cm (HxW) A thangka is a Tibetan scroll painting on fabric whose name means "something rolled up"; it serves as a meditation image in temples and house altars and is painted according to canonical rules with mineral pigments on a glue and chalk ground. Like most peaceful deities of the Tibetan pantheon, the main figure sits on a lotus throne before mandorla and nimbus, surrounded by a landscape with secondary figures and animals that presents the sphere of the deity to the viewer. Such thangkas (also spelled tangka) with landscape ground and secondary figures belong to Tibetan painting and to Himalayan art as cultivated in Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan.