The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 7, 2024

Portraits of Two Lineage Masters of the Kagyu Order: Phagmo Drupa (1110–1170) and Tashipel (1142–1210)

Portraits of Two Lineage Masters of the Kagyu Order: Phagmo Drupa (1110–1170) and Tashipel (1142–1210)

c. 1236–1310
Gum tempera on sized cotton
Overall: 51.4 x 39.4 cm (20 1/4 x 15 1/2 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1987.146
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The Five Cosmic Buddhas in their six-armed forms are aligned at the top.

Description

High-level leaders of Buddhist monastic institutions were frequent portrait subjects of early thangka painting (devotional cloth scrolls) in Central Tibet. The lama (Tibetan monk) on the right founded Taklung Monastery in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which became an important institutional center of the Kagyu order. He is shown in discourse with his predecessor, whose teacher Gampopa (1079–1153), in turn, is the tiny gray-haired lama centered above them, between the colorful stylized mountain ranges.

Their halos, lotus pedestal, and thrones with spitting elephant-trunked crocodiles and rearing griffins elevate them to the level of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Despite their deification, they are still depicted with individualized facial features.
  • ?-1987
    (David Tremayne Ltd., London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1987-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1987.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 75, no. 2, 1988, pp. 30–71. Mentioned: no. 217, p. 71; Reproduced: no. 217, p. 49 www.jstor.org
    Tilden, Jill. First Under Heaven: The Art of Asia. London: Hali Publications Ltd, 1997. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 14, p. 135, no. 15, p. 137 (detail)
    Kossak, Steven, Jane Casey Singer, and Robert Bruce-Gardner. Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 26, pp. 113-115 libmma.contentdm.oclc.org
    Weldon, David, and Jane Casey Singer. The sculptural heritage of Tibet: Buddhist art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection. London: Laurence King Publishing, 1999. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 52, pp. 136-137
  • Himalayan Gallery 237 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 12-August 29, 2021).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 239). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 18, 2013-June 30, 2014).
    Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (October 5, 1998-January 17, 1999); Museum Rietberg, Zürich (February 14-May 16, 1999).
    The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).
  • {{cite web|title=Portraits of Two Lineage Masters of the Kagyu Order: Phagmo Drupa (1110–1170) and Tashipel (1142–1210)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1236–1310|access-date=07 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1987.146