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Requires Photography
Gautama Buddha
Tibetan
Object Place: Tibet
Medium/Technique
Gouache, Distemper on cotton, mounted with blue and red cotton border
Credit Line
Gift of Miss Elsie Dwight Alling in memory of Miss Isabel Green Dod
Accession Number44.657
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia
ClassificationsPaintings
DescriptionPainting in hanging scroll (thangka) format with decorative stitched borders, no streamers or veil.
Gautama Buddha is on a lotus with right hand in bhumisparsa mudra and left hand in dhyana mudra, holding his begging bowl. He wears elaborately-decorated robes and is surrounded by a halo. He is flanked by standing monastic figures. Above him, at center, is a Buddha seated in European style, flanked by two monks, one in a yellow hat and the other in a red hat. Below him, at center, is a figure of Amitayus, flanked by Bodhisattvas and Buddhas. In the upper and lower corners are eight seated Buddhas in a variety of colors and showing a variety of mudras, probably representing the medicine Buddhas. The Buddha in the lower right corner is white but with an unusual dark blue shirt or stain on his upper body and snakes on his halo. The center of the bottom of the painting contains a lotus pond in which three small Lamas sit on lotuses. Chinese-style mountains serve as a backdrop.
Gautama Buddha is on a lotus with right hand in bhumisparsa mudra and left hand in dhyana mudra, holding his begging bowl. He wears elaborately-decorated robes and is surrounded by a halo. He is flanked by standing monastic figures. Above him, at center, is a Buddha seated in European style, flanked by two monks, one in a yellow hat and the other in a red hat. Below him, at center, is a figure of Amitayus, flanked by Bodhisattvas and Buddhas. In the upper and lower corners are eight seated Buddhas in a variety of colors and showing a variety of mudras, probably representing the medicine Buddhas. The Buddha in the lower right corner is white but with an unusual dark blue shirt or stain on his upper body and snakes on his halo. The center of the bottom of the painting contains a lotus pond in which three small Lamas sit on lotuses. Chinese-style mountains serve as a backdrop.
InscriptionsOn reverse, three-character Tibetan inscription (probably mantra) appears behind every major figure. To be read.
Provenance1944, Miss Elsie Dwight Alling, Boston, MA; 1944, gift of Alling to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 8, 1944)