703 - Thangka with Seated Deity on a Lotus Throne in a Mountain Landscape, Framed Behind Glass

Thangka with Seated Deity on a Lotus Throne in a Mountain Landscape, Framed Behind Glass Tempera on linen. Seated deity with a pale complexion on a broad lotus throne, the right leg lowered, the right hand opened and turned downwards, the left before the breast; over the left shoulder the stem of a lotus flower. The head with a diadem and a high piled topknot, ornamental rings on arms and legs, the robe in red and ochre, around the head an orange nimbus before a dark mandorla. Below the throne a golden offering bowl with white offerings. The deity set in a green-blue mountain landscape with lotus flowers, white peaks and golden-yellow cloud bands, the picture field enclosed by a red border strip, the edges of the linen frayed. Condition commensurate with age, rubbed, partly creased with loss of paint. Image 46.5x34.5 cm (HxW). Mounted on dark red card and framed behind glass in a blue-grey fluted moulding, the frame rubbed, overall 54.5x44.5 cm (HxW) Thangkas are Buddhist scroll paintings of the Himalayan region; they served for meditation and were originally mounted in silk brocade and kept rolled up. The painting is executed in size tempera on primed cotton or linen. The posture shown here, with the right leg lowered and the hand opened and turned downwards, is the gesture of granting, with which a benevolent deity signals its favour; together with the lotus stem over the shoulder it belongs to the fixed pictorial vocabulary of this group.