The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
Iconographic Drawings: Vaishravana, Yama, Ushnishavijaya, Chunda (?), and Buddha (recto)
c. 1500
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
The script notations are in an Indic script, but the line drawings are Tibetan.Description
Tibetan thangka painters referred to sketchbooks with drawings that delineate the iconographies—appearance and identifying attributes—of Buddhist figures. These visual guides were heavily used; very few survive. This rare example shows signs of wear, but the steady line drawings are the work of a master.The largest figure on the left is the guardian king of the north, Vaishravana, god of wealth, and the small figure to the right appears to be a donor in Tibetan dress. The next page to the right has Yama, the guardian king of the south, and the god of death in union with his consort on his buffalo mount. Below them is a goddess of longevity, Ushnishavijaya. At the far right is an 18-armed goddess seated in a skull cup on serpents, below which is a seated Buddha.
- ?-1985(Spink & Son, Ltd., London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)1985-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1985.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 73, no. 2, 1986, pp. 26–71. Mentioned: no. 204, p. 71 www.jstor.org
- Himalayan Gallery 237 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 12-August 29, 2021).
- {{cite web|title=Iconographic Drawings: Vaishravana, Yama, Ushnishavijaya, Chunda (?), and Buddha (recto)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1500|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.191.a