A Prince, Perhaps Sultan Parviz, with Female Companions
Attributed to Bishndas, Mughal, 1605-1610
Opaque pigments on paper
Image: 8 5/8 x 5½ in. (21.9 x 14 cm)
Folio: 13¼ x 8 5/8 in. (33.8 x 21.9 cm)
Provenance:
Collection of Mark Zebrowski, London
European Private Collection
Published:
J. Bor, P. Brugière, J. Kippen, A. Miner, A. Okada, and D. Trasoff, Gloire des princes, Louange des dieux. Patrimoine musical de l’Hidoustan du XIVe au XXe siècle, Musée de la Musique exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2003, no. 39, pp. 80-81
Tibet
Mid-13th century
Distemper on cloth
20½ x 15 in. (52 by 38 cm)
Provenance:
American Private Collection
Published:
Jane Casey Singer, “Early Thangkas: Eleventh-Thirteenth Centuries,” in Pratapaditya Pal ed., On The Path to Void: Buddhist Art of the Tibetan Realm, Mumbai, 1996, p. 194, pl. 12
David P. Jackson, Mirror of the Buddha, Early Portraits from Tibet, Rubin Museum exhibition catalogue, New York, 2011, fig. 4.16
Tibet
Circa 18th century
Distemper on cloth
19 3/8 x 25 7/8 in. (49.3 x 65.1 cm)
Provenance:
Christian Humann (Pan-Asian Collection), 1974-1982
Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, New York, 1982-1993
European Private Collection, acquired in 1993
In the tradition of gyentsog (sets of ornaments) painting, the central deity is evoked by the portrayal of his/her vacant garments, ornaments, and attributes. Here, for example, a voluminous robe, flayed tiger-skin dhoti, garland of heads, and five-skull tiara indicate the Dharmapala Mahakala. In addition to Mahakala, smaller empty robes on his left and right suggest the inclusion of two additional dharmapalas. The deities are surrounded by a profusely-dispersed display of ritual objects, including representations of the eight auspicious symbols (ashtamangala): endless knot (srivatsa), lotus flower, pair of goldfish, dharmachakra, white conch shell, jeweled parasol, treasure vase, and victory banner. Skull-cups and other bowls with offerings and flaming tormas are depicted in the registers below. A group of musicians and dancers cavorts in a frenzied manner in the lower section, some with their heads turned to display their gold hair ornaments. In the background at the bottom, a variety of lively and somewhat menacing animals including jackals, elephants, tigers, mules, lions, yaks, leopards, stags, horses, peacocks, and parrots, amongst others, add to the overall composition. Bordering the scene at the top is a frieze with eviscerated human entrails, flayed skins, and severed human heads. A small figure of Garuda with wings spread hovers nearby.
Tibet
Early 17th century
Distemper on cloth
42½ by 30¼ in. (108 x 77 cm)
Provenance:
Collection of Richard R. and Magdalena Ernst
Published:
David Jackson, A History of Tibetan Painting, Wien, 1996, p. 187, pl. 27
The blue, buffalo-headed Yamantaka is ithyphallic and without consort in his Ekavira Vajrabhairava manifestation, with nine faces, sixteen legs, and thirty-four arms, and holding a flayed elephant skin cape at his back and a panoply of ritual implements.
He is adorned with human skulls and bone jewelry, snakes, and a garland of severed heads, and he stands in pratyalidha trampling naked humans, fierce animals, and angry birds, with Brahmanical deities lying prone on a lotus pedestal resting on mountainous landscape and an aureole of flames behind representing pristine awareness.
Ekavira Vajrabhairava – Tibet – Artworks-Items – Carlton Rochell
Vajradhara above is flanked by Yama and Nairatmya, multi-armed forms of Krishna Yamari astride buffalo, and a lineage of Indian adepts and Tibetan Sakya-order hierarchs. Mounted Brahmanical dikpala guardians appear below, including Indra on his elephant to the right, four-armed Agni on a ram beneath, Ishana on a black bull, blue Yama holding a skull staff and riding a buffalo, Bhudevi on her black sow, blue Nirrti on a naked dark-skinned zombie, Brahma on a goose, Varuna holding the serpent, Vayu on a gazelle, and Yaksha on a horse.
David Jackson has identified the final teacher depicted in the Sakya lineage surrounding Vajrabhairava as the 13th abbot of Ngor monastery, Drangti Panchen Namkha Pelzang (1535—1602),[1] thus suggesting a Ngor-monastery provenance for the painting and a date of around 1600. The red-painted border with gold floral design is typical of Sakya-order thangkas from this period, such as a circa-1600 Kurukulla in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[2]
[1] Jackson, op. cit.
[2] Pratapaditya Pal, Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure, Chicago, 2003, p. 259, pl. 171
North India, Himachal Pradesh
6th/7th century
Brass
Height: 7½ in. (19 cm)
Provenance:
Arnold H. Lieberman, New York
The Kronos Collections, acquired in 1995
Published:
Pratapaditya Pal, Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure, Art Institute of Chicago exhibition catalogue, 2003, cat. no. 53
Exhibited:
“Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure,” Art Institute of Chicago, April 5–August 17, 2003; Smithsonian Institution, October 18, 2003–January 11, 2004
This brass relief represents the Hindu god Shiva, the facial features worn by the repeated use of ritual unguents. His face with full lips with the ends of a moustache projecting upwards from the corners of his mouth, petite nose, and delicate almond-shaped eyes beneath arched eyebrows. Shiva is wearing a double-stranded necklace with large circular jewels, two distinct ear ornaments in the form of a beaded ring and an antelope-skin respectively suspended in his pendulous earlobes, and simple crown with ribbed diadem decorated with trilobate foliate ornaments. His hair is arranged in rows of spiral ringlets on top of his head which cascade into tiers of sausage curls behind his ears.
Masks have a long, continuous history in India, beginning with terracotta examples excavated from Indus Valley cities (at their zenith circa 2600-1900 B.C.E). People in Rajasthan and Maharashtra continue to worship metal faces. Depictions of Shiva and Devi in the form of brass or silver mohras, however, are peculiar to the Himalayan regions. Extant masks from the post-Gupta period are extremely rare and were cast in the Chamba, Kulu, and Sutlej valley regions of Himachal Pradesh.
See M. Postel, A. Neven, and K. Mankodi, Antiquities of Himachal, 1985, 189 & fig 292; S. Kramrisch, Manifestations of Siva, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1980, p.102; H. Hartel, Museum for Indische Kunst, Berlin, Katalog, 1976, p. 182; and J. Guy, Indian Temple Sculpture, London, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2007, p. 146, pl. 164.
Northeastern India, Bihar
Pala Dynasty, 9th century
Black stone
Height: 27½ in. (68.6 cm)
Inscribed with the Buddhist creed (‘ye dharma hetu…’)
Provenance:
Private Collection, Los Angeles, acquired in 1968
Mahapratisara is the principal goddess in the Pañcaraksā group, and her worship is widely prevalent amongst the Tantric Buddhists. She is represented either singly or in a mandala in the company of four other Pañcaraksā deities. She is generally yellow when worshipped independently and white when worshipped in the mandala of the five goddesses. This remarkable sculpture portrays Mahapratisara, the principal Raksha goddess, with her distinctive eight arms adorned with various symbolic attributes. In her central pair of hands, she holds the sutra of perfected wisdom (known as the Prajnaparamita sutra) in her left hand, while her right hand is open in a gesture of granting wishes (varada mudra). Her additional hands carry an axe, trident, lasso, sword, discus, and a three-pronged vajra, emphasizing her role as one of Buddhism’s most adept and well-equipped guardians.
Devotees hold the five Raksha goddesses in high regard as worldly protectors, each with specific functions to alleviate fear and protect against harm from sources such as dangerous animals, diseases, and natural disasters. These goddesses are also associated with mantras, special verbal utterances from sutras. Among these mantras, Mahapratisara’s, known as the Mahapratisara-Mahavidyarajni, is the most comprehensive, making her widely popular across Asia. Any follower, whether a monk or a lay devotee, can invoke her protection, often in the form of an amulet or an amulet containing her written incantation. Consequently, stone depictions of her divine persona are exceedingly rare.
This representation of the eight-armed protector goddess exhibits distinct stylistic characteristics reminiscent of 9th/10th-century sculptures from the early Pala period. A related example can be found at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1991.108).
Tibet
Late 14th century
Distemper and gold highlights on cotton canvas
33 1/8 by 29 1/8 in. (84.2 by 74 cm)
Provenance:
Rossi & Rossi, London
European Private Collection, acquired in 1993
This painting depicts the mandala of Shakyamuni Buddha in the form of Shakya Simha, as described in the Vajravali (Adamantine Garland) treatise by Abhayakaragupta (d. 1125), in which the Indian pandit compiled the mandala practice of esoteric Buddhist deities in extensive iconographic detail.[1]
The painting is one of numerous mandalas known from the same series that remains amongst the finest and most important Tibetan works of art from the second half of the fourteenth century. Paintings from the series were first published and recognized as masterpieces by Robert Burawoy in his seminal 1978 Paris exhibition “Peintures du monastère de Nor,” which featured four of the mandalas.[2] At that time the paintings were thought to be from Ngor monastery, but current scholarship suggests a provenance of Shalu is likely. Paintings from the set are preserved in museum and private collections worldwide, and their historical importance has been documented by scholars including Pratapaditya Pal,[3] Steven M. Kossak and Jane Casey Singer,[4] Amy Heller,[5] John C. Huntington and Dina Bangdel,[6] Jane Casey,[7] Steven Kossak,[8] and Jeff Watt.[9] Each of the mandalas depict Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen (1312-1375) at the center of the upper register, suggesting that the cycle of mandalas is dedicated to him. Lama Dampa was a student and patron of the celebrated scholar Buton Rinchen Drup (1290-1364), the eleventh abbot of Shalu monastery. Watt suggests the paintings may have been dedicated to Lama Dampa by his devoted student Chen-nga Chenpo (1310-1370).
The series is the most extensive of all Tibetan Vajravali mandala sets from the fourteenth century. Each example is designed and painted with the same vibrant palette and exquisite attention to detail. While the overall format and dimension of the paintings is the same throughout the series, the iconography of the deity represented dictates the final composition of each work. Here, Shakya Simha is seated on his crouching white snow-lion surrounded by an entourage of deities within the mandala palace. Unlike many in the series there are no charnel grounds depicted. In their place a ring of fabulous Vedic planetary deities encircles the palace. Buddhas within scrolling vine appear in the quadrants outside the palace. A Sakya lineage is depicted in the upper register, and deities and wealth gods in the lower register accompany the donor monk seated next to an offering table. This highly-important Tibetan painting retains its original blue silk fishtail-shaped mounts and resist-dyed silk veils.
1 See Jeff Watt, https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1556
2 Robert Burawoy, Peintures du monastère de Nor, Paris, 1978
3 Pratapaditya Pal, Tibetan Paintings: A Study of Tibetan Thangkas, Eleventh to Nineteenth Centuries, Basel, 1984, and Tibet: Tradition and Change, Albuquerque, 1997, pp. 146-147
4 Steven M. Kossak and Jane Casey Singer, Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet, New York, 1998, pp. 163-164
5 “The Vajravali Mandala of Shalu and Sakya: The Legacy of Buton (1290-1364)” in Orientations, Hong Kong, May 2003, pp. 69-73
6 John C. Huntington and Dina Bangdel, The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art, Serindia, 2003, pp. 308-312
7 Jane Casey in Divine Presence, Barcelona, 2003, p. 148
8 Steven M. Kossak, Painted Images of Enlightenment: Early Tibetan Thangkas, 1050-1450, Mumbai, 2010, pp. 107-109
9 Jeff Watt, https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=2083
10 Ibid.
March 13 – 21, 2025 Exhibiting at: Adam Williams Fine Art, 24 East 80th Street Asia Week hours: March 13-15 & 17-21, 10am-6pm; March 16, 11am-5pm (otherwise by appointment)
We are delighted to present several notable works from Tibet in this year’s Asia Week exhibition. From an American private collection is a rare image of the Buddhist divinity Kalacakra, beautifully cast in copper alloy and sumptuously gilded. It dates to the 18th century and shares some stylistic influences from the finest Qianlong period sculptures from China.
Another exquisite work is a painting depicting the Second Taklung Abbot Kuyalwa, commissioned for the Riwoche Monastery in Tibet and dating to c.1297-1366. This regal portrait has survived in remarkable condition with its vibrant mineral-based color palette of rich reds, blues, and yellows. The intricate details of his robe, throne and surrounding lineage figures are drawn in extremely-fine detail.
Finally, there is an elegant standing figure of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara hailing from the renowned Zimmerman Collection. One of the most popular bodhisattvas in the Buddhist pantheon, Avalokitesvara’s elegant tribhanga pose and right hand in a mudra bestowing charity reinforce his divine countenance. This work, which dates from the 15th century, has been published numerously in many exhibition catalogs.
Carlton Rochell established his gallery in New York in 2002 after a distinguished career at Sotheby’s. He has remained focused on the art of India, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia and has staged many important exhibitions since opening his gallery. Holland Cotter of the New York Times in his review of the inaugural exhibition in 2002 wrote: “The arrival of a new, open-to-the public gallery devoted to Indian and Southeast Asian art is an event for the city; such showcases are few and far between.”
Carlton Rochell established the first full-time auctions in North America devoted to Indian and Southeast Asian in 1985, and he has handled many important objects from distinguished collections including: the Pan-Asian Collection, the Heeramaneck Collection, Carter Burden, Laurance Rockefeller, William S. Paley, the Ehrenfeld Collection, the Estate of William H. Wolff, the Estate of Richard B. Gump, and many others.
Since the establishment of Carlton Rochell Asian Art, the gallery has placed works of art privately with many important private collectors in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as to institutions such as: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Dallas Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Rubin Museum of Art, Ackland Art Museum, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, The David Collection, Copenhagen, and the Zhiguan Museum of Fine Art, Beijing.
Carlton Rochell has also exhibited in international art fairs such as Asia Week New York, Frieze Masters in London, Fine Art Asia in Hong Kong, The Winter Show in New York, and TEFAF Maastricht.
The gallery purchases art as well as accepting works on consignment and is pleased to offer advisory services to collectors. We also provide appraisal services for Fair Market, Insurance, and Charitable Gift purposes.
