Provenance:
European Private Collection, acquired in 1993
The textile thangkas produced in the imperial workshops of the Yuan (1279-1368) and early Ming dynasties are some of the most spectacular Buddhist images of the period. Textiles can be more durable than paintings, of which very few Buddhist works survive from this period. One thinks of the monumental Yongle Raktayamari embroidery, still in a virtually perfect state of preservation.[1] This slit-weave silk (kesi) thangka depicts the meditation deity Chakrasamvara and probably also dates to the Yongle period; compare the pedestal of the Yongle Raktayamari with similar full, rounded lotus petals and the distinctive flourish on the tips of the petals[2] and the closely-comparable background scroll design of a Yongle Guhyasamaja embroidery in the Potala datable to 1416-1419.[3] Two other early Ming kesi thangkas depicting Chakrasamvara are known, one formerly in the collection of Dr. Wesley and Mrs. Carolyn M. Halpert[4] and one in the Potala Palace Collection, Lhasa.[5]
Textile thangkas are known to have been amongst the numerous imperial gifts to Tibetan lamas during the early Ming period. According to the inscriptions on an important embroidered Hevajra in the Pritzker Collection, the thangka was presented to Shakya Yeshe (d. 1435) by the Yongle emperor.[6]
Blue Chakrasamvara is depicted here with four heads and twelve arms standing against a backdrop of fire (denoting pristine awareness) and embracing his consort, red Vajravarahi, as they trample the Hindu deities Bhairava and Kalaratri, symbolizing the conquest of phenomenal existence.
1 Valrae Reynolds, “Fabric Images and their Special Role in Tibet” in Pratapaditya Pal, ed., On the Path to Void, Marg Publications, 1996, p. 256, pl. 11: and Christie’s, Hong Kong, 26 November 2014, no. 3001
2 Ibid.
3 Prof. Dr. Jeong-hee Lee-Kalisch, ed., Tibet: Klöster öffnen ihre Schatzkammern, Essen/München, pp. 331-336, cat. no. 55
4 Reynolds, op. cit., p. 255, fig. 10
5 Chen Xiejun, Wang Qingzheng, eds., Treasures from Snow Mountains: Gems of Tibetan Cultural Relics, Shanghai, 2001, cat. no. 9
6 Karl Debreczeny, ed., Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, New York, 2019, p. 132, fig. 6.4
