An important thangka depicting Vajrasana Buddha at Bodh Gaya, Tibet, 14th / 15th century

Collection of George P. Bickford (1901-91).

Christie's London, 13th June 1979, lot 212.

Indian Art from the George P. Bickford Collection, The Cleveland Art Museum, Cleveland; University Art Museum, The University of Texas, Austin; Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; University Gallery, University of Florida; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix; University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley; University of Michigan Art Museum, Ann Arbor, 1975, cat. no. 134.

Stanislaw Czuma, Indian Art from the George P. Bickford Collection, Cleveland, 1975, cat. no. 134.

The thankga depicts Buddha Shakyamuni at the historical eastern Indian vajrasana site in the Mahabodhi temple complex at Bodhgaya. Leaves of the bodhi tree, under which the Buddha attained enlightenment, appear above the temple. The Buddha dominates the picture, wearing a regal crown and seated in vajraparyankasana on a lotus throne, his left hand in the gesture of meditation and his right hand in bhumisparsha mudra, reaching forward to touch the earth as witness to his heroic defeat of the demon Mara and his right to enlightenment. The vajrasana site is indicated by the golden vajra depicted upright before the throne cloth. The Buddha is flanked by standing bodhisattvas, Maitreya on the left and Manjushri on the right. Surrounding the central composition are twenty-eight scenes from the life of Buddha beginning at the upper right side register with the Vessantara Bodhisattva choosing his mother in Tushita Heaven, followed by the dream of Maya with an auspicious white elephant symbolizing the conception of the extraordinary child. The panels continue through the Buddha's precocious childhood, his marriage, renunciation and departure from palace life, his teachings to disciples, kings and beasts, and ending with the Parinirvana in the upper register flanked by worshipping Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

The work is a superlative example of early Tibetan painting in the Nepalese manner. Characteristics of this central Tibetan style popularized in Sakya ateliers include the intricate detail depicted in a vibrant palette and the hallmark scrollwork throughout, epitomizing the Newar aesthetic. Compare the remarkably similar composition and detail of an important fourteenth century Tibetan thangka depicting Buddha Shakyamuni and Episodes from his Life, in the Tibet Museum, Lhasa, see J. Lee-Kalisch, ed., Tibet: Klöster öffnen ihre Schatzkammern, Essen, 2006, cat. no. 16; including the Buddha’s broad shoulders and forehead; the tiered lion throne with adorsed hamsa on the crossbar of the torana; the Buddha’s patchwork robe with decorated hems and the columnar modelling of the attendant bodhisattvas and their similar robe design; and the composition of the narrative panels. The Tibetan origin of the work is distinguishable from Nepalese prototypes in the depiction of historical figures wearing traditional long-sleeved Tibetan robes, and the absence of the typical scenes on Newar paubha depicting a donor family with vajracharya performing puja.

Tibetan antecedents in the Newar style include the renowned thirteenth century set of Tathagata paintings in Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Replica Handbags s, Boston and Philadelphia Museum of Art, see Steve Kossak and James Singer, Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet, New York, 1998, cat. no 36: compare the broad shoulders of the central figures, certain architectural elements and the rectangular panels in the upper registers: and the thirteenth century Virupa in the Kronos Collections, ibid., cat. no. 35, with compartmented narrative scenes. Compare also a fifteenth century Tibetan Bhaishajyaguru thangka in the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection illustrated in Pratapaditya Pal, Tibetan Paintings, Ravi Kumar, Replica Shoes ’s publications, Basel, 1984, pl. 44.

The collection of Indian and Himalayan art formed by George P. Bickford (1901-91) in the mid 20^th century is of unparalleled quality, and includes pre-eminent examples in all categories. Born in New Hampshire, he graduated from Harvard in 1922 and travelled to China, where he studied Chinese and taught in a missionary school in Shanghai. After World War 2, where he served in India and Burma, his collection was exhibited at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1946 and again in 1975, when the present thangka was published for the first time. His Licchavi gilt figure of Devi, one of the greatest Nepalese bronzes in any museum collection, was donated to the museum in 1983, accession number 1983.153. This superb thangka of Buddha at Bodh Gaya was acquired by the current owner at Christie’s London in 1979, and has remained in his New York apartment ever since.