拍品编号：PMJG4169

拍品名称：达玛茹巴

拍品年代：17th

拍品尺幅：78 * 67（厘米）

成交金额： 737,000 EUR

折合人民币：737000 EUR

拍品类型： 彩唐

拍品地域：藏中

拍品风格：俄尔寺

拍品材质：布

拍品主题：人物

拍卖公司：Bonhams（邦瀚斯）

拍卖专场：Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art（2023-06）

拍卖时间：2023年6月

拍卖地点：巴黎

原始编号：109

内容:

TANGKA REPRÉSENTANT LE PORTRAIT DE DAMARUPA
TIBET CENTRAL, MONASTÈRE DE NGOR, VERS 1600
Distemper on cloth; with original blue cloth mounts inscribed on the reverse along the top in Tibetan, identifying the painting's subject, and also with original red lacquered, gold painted dowel rod; verso inscribed in black ink with 'om, ah, hum' incantations behind each figure and many lines arranged into the form of a stupa, comprising Sanskritized and Tibetan prayers and mantras consistent with a formula repeated throughout the Ngor lamdre lineage set of paintings; the painted recto with Tibetan inscriptions in gold identifying the majority of figures, and two separate lines of inscription along the bottom red painted border, the second identifying the secondary "Chandali Perfection Stage Lineage" sequence of figures within the painting, the first an homage to the central subject, translated:

"Seeing the excellent meaning of reality,
By releasing from worldly practice
And remaining in the conduct of accomplishment;
To Damarupa, I bow."
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 88707
Image: 78.5 x 67 cm (30 7/8 x26 3/8 in.);
With silks: 126 x 68 cm (49 5/8 x 26 3/4 in.)
Footnotes
A PORTRAIT THANGKA OF DAMARUPA
CENTRAL TIBET, NGOR MONASTERY, CIRCA 1600

藏中 俄爾寺 約1600年 達瑪如巴肖像唐卡

Published:
Pratapaditya Pal, Tibetan Painting, Basel, 1984, pl. 40.
Wisdom Calendar of Tibetan Art, Schneelowe Verlagsberatung und Verlag, Haldenwang, 1987 (October).
Pratapaditya Pal, Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure, 2003, p. 262, no. 174.
Rob Linrothe, Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas, New York, 2006, pp. 300-1, no. 51.
David Jackson, The Nepalese Legacy in Tibetan Painting, New York, 2010, pp. 22 & 41, fig. 2.23.

Exhibited:
Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure, Art Institute of Chicago, 5 April – 17 August 2003; National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., 18 October 2003 – 11 January 2004.
Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 11 February – 3 September 2006.
The Nepalese Legacy in Tibetan Painting, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 3 September 2010 – 23 May 2011.

Provenance:
Schoettle Ostasiatica, Stuttgart, 1982
Michael Henss Collection, Zurich

One of the best-preserved paintings from the famous Ngor lamdre lineage set, this near-pristine composition depicts Mahasiddha Damarupa, 'The Drummer'. According to traditional accounts, Damarupa trained under Kanha at every potent charnel ground and site of tantric power in India, prompting his zestful depiction. In addition to being the third mortal master of the lamdre tradition, Damarupa is a renowned adept of the important Chakrasamvara Tantra, which the composition alludes to through the pair of Chakrasamvara deities from differing teaching traditions in the corners at either side of his ornate throne-back. His eponymous damaru, a double-sided hand drum, embodies one of three principal ritual instruments of a tantric practitioner, alongside the vajra and ghanta (bell). Formed by attaching two craniums of enlightened masters, the drum, in the context of Chakrasamvara Tantra, is the Prajna (wisdom) to which the male applies his skillful means (i.e. compassion) activating the union of these two highest Buddhist principles (Huntington & Bangdel, The Circle of Bliss, 2003, no. 106). With modulations from soft to loud and slow to rapid beats, Damarupa, as the drum's archetypal practitioner, is able to produce a single tone that summons all Buddhas, inspiring them with supreme joy (Beer, The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs, 1999, p. 258).

At the center of the painting, Damarupa whips the pair of golden clappers against the drum with a flick of his wrist. The drum's long tassel of jade beads, gems, gold fastenings, and tri-colored silk streamers trail in countermovement. The painter repeats its flurried arc with the extension of Damarupa's left leg, which, coupled with a half-cocked elbow gingerly cradling a skull cup full of nectar, deftly conveys the peripatetic drummer in a half-seated-half-dancing liminal posture. Airy crimson sashes twirl around his arms and knees, and spiral before his feet. Damarupa's piercing, bloodshot brown eyes and excited grin invite the viewer to hear the 'sound of great bliss' he has produced for all those that can perceive it. He wears a crown of five emblazoned gems borne alternately from Indian lotuses and Chinese peonies. The colored order of each gemstone correlates to the surrounding structure of green, red, and blue aureoles of perfect Newari scrollwork. Meanwhile, his black hair wrapped in an intricate bone lattice is pulled up into a trilobed bun that echoes the edge of the throne-back above him, further harmonizing with the mahasiddha's visage.

Twenty-six vividly executed portraits comprising the 'Chandali Perfection Stage Lineage' surround Damarupa in formal rows along the top and side registers. This secondary lineage within the painting is one of over thirty traditional Sakya tantric lineages for which Ngor claimed to excel. Delightful details abound throughout the depicted succession of masters, including Vajra Ghantapa's mid-air tantric sexual congress with his consort (3), and the founder of the Sakya tradition, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo's, aqua cloak and strigine tufts of hair (12).

Within the broader set of Ngor lamdre lineage paintings, each composition dedicated to a mortal master, from Virupa up until Sakya Pandita (i.e. paintings 3-14 overall within the set), depicts a sequence of deities, often in rare iconographic forms, following an important Sakya treatise called the Bari Gyatsa: The One Hundred Teachings of Bari Lotsawa Rinchen Drag (1040-1112). (Thereafter, deities from the Sadhanamala are sequenced until some point when the list is presumably exhausted before the final lamdre master.) Appearing in the bottom register, each apportioning of deities is generally distributed as spreading out from the center, matching the order of secondary lineage masters in the top. The Damarupa, therefore, displays deities 14-21 from the Bari Gyatsa, comprising three forms of Krishna Yamari and five forms of Avalokiteshvara.

One of the especially harmonious aspects of this particular painting within the Ngor lamdre lineage series arrives seemingly from a fortunate blend of coincidence and artistic intent. Firstly, within the side registers of secondary lineage masters, appearing opposite each other halfway down the painting at Damarupa's heart level, the artist depicts Chogyal Pagpa (16) and Shangton Konchog Pal (17) in mirrored poses. At least in the case of Chogyal Pagpa, of whom many more artworks are known, this combination of iconographic gestures, vitarka- and abhaya mudra, is atypical. It is, therefore, possible to read some artistic licence here: each secondary master's outstretched hands having the effect of stabilizing Damarupa's skewed posture. Secondly, the order of deities following the Bari Gyatsa at the bottom, either by chance or grand pre-emptive design, have pleasantly resulted in a central triad of strident Krishna Yamaris with deep azurite bodies that match the central Vajradhara (1) along the vertical axis above. Simultaneously, the raised hands of the flanking Krishna Yamaris correspond to the poses of Nairatmya (2) and Vajra Ghantapa (3) straight above. With such auspicious symmetry, the artist has seemingly reinforced the extremities of his painting's central axes, resulting in an unusual symphony around the central Damarupa, distinguishing the artwork among the broader lamdre lineage set, and from any other painting of the tantric drummer in the West.

1. Vajradhara
2. Yogini
3. Vajra Ghantapa
4. Kurmapada
5. Barwa Dzinpa
6. Kanha Shridhara
7. Shridhara
8. Gayadhara
9. Mulu Lungdu Trulku Drub
10. Jetsun Kunrig
11. Shanton Chobar
12. Sachen Kunga Nyingpo
13. Jetsun Sonam Tsemo
14. Choje Dragpa Gyaltsen
15. Sakya Pandita
16. Chogyal Pagpa
17. Shangton Konchog Pal
18. Dragpugpa Sonal Pal
19. Drogon Lama Sonam Gyaltsen
20. Palden Tsultrim
21. Buddhashri
22. Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo
23. Kechog Kunga Lodro
24. Ketsun Pal
25. Namkha Palzang
26. Root Guru

A. Krishna Yamari (six faces, six hands)
B. Krishna Yamari (one face, two hands)
C. Krishna Yamari (three faces, six hands)
D. Shri Vajradharma (Avalokiteshvara)
E. Simhanada Lokeshvara
F. Hala Hala Lokeshvara
G. Khasarpani Lokeshvara
H. Shadakshari Lokeshvara

i. Amitabha
ii. Amitayus
iii. Chakrasamvara (Luipa tradition)
iv. Chakrasamvara (Krishnacharin tradition)


Two Mahasiddhas from The Ngor Lamdre Lineage Set
From The Michael Henss Collection

The following two extraordinary paintings, depicting the Indian tantric mahasiddhas (great adepts), Kanha and Damarupa, belong to what is today the most famous set of portrait thangkas presenting a Tibetan Buddhist teaching lineage. Most of its dispersed members are now located between international museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Musée Guimet, Paris. The series was produced around 1600 in southern Central Tibet at Ngor monastery, which flourished under a superlative reputation for monastic discipline and tantric specialism. Each painting depicts a sequential master of the lamdre lineage, which is the Sakya tradition's essential teaching. These two portraits of Kanha and his student, Damarupa, from the collection of esteemed Himalayan art scholar and connoisseur Michael Henss, stand out as two of only four very rare mahasiddhas within the acclaimed set, injecting wild and transgressive elements into a sea of some thirty staid monastic hierarchs. The Ngor lamdre lineage series is highly regarded by art historians for, among other things, its vibrant palette, flawless brushwork, honed compositions, and deft portrayals of each central subject's psychological poise. It follows, therefore, that these two paintings also lay claim to being among, if not the best, Tibetan thangkas of Kanha and Damarupa in Western private collections or institutions.

The lamdre tradition is the fundamental system of tantric practice for the Sakya order, which is one four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The teachings contain everything a practitioner of tantric meditation and yoga needs to attain complete enlightenment in a single lifetime, bypassing what would otherwise take eons through mainstream meditative practice. Meaning 'path with the result' or 'taking the result as the path', the lamdre tradition essentially provides a method for meditating, "not as a human being trying to become awakened but rather as one who is already enlightened. In so doing, one's 'path' (lam) becomes precisely the meditative simulation of the eventual 'result' (dre): the state of being a buddha" (Henry Rice & Durham, Awaken, 2019, p. 26).

Ngor monastery, or Ngor Ewam Choden, was founded in 1429 by one of the Sakyas' most revered tantric scholars and practitioners, Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (1382-1456). Located in southwestern Shigatse, Ngor became the heart of a dynamic Ngorpa subdivision within the Sakya school that attracted some of the brightest students of that generation. As Jackson writes, "They came from all over Tibet, wishing also to receive initiations and esoteric instructions from Ngorchen who was revered as Vajradhara in human form." (Jackson, The Nepalese Legacy in Tibetan Painting, 2010, p. 177). Ngorchen's abbatial successors continued after his death to uphold the founder's emphasis on strict monastic conduct and expertise in the lamdre tradition, first and foremost, as well as a canon of traditional Sakya tantric teachings. Such teachings are also represented throughout the Ngor lamdre thangka set in 'secondary' lineages in the top and side registers surrounding each central subject. Ngor's disciplined approach to monastic life finds expression as well, within carefully inscribed prayers on the back of each painting arranged into the shape of a stupa that are taken from the Pratimoksha Sutra, providing a monastic code of conduct.

Ngorchen was also a prolific patron of the arts. With his initial employment of six talented Newars for a set of mandalas (HAR set no. 1212), he ushered in a new wave of Tibetan-sponsored Newari masterworks at Ngor, which lasted for more than a century and a half. The Newars are an ethnic group from Nepal's Kathmandu Valley who have been transmitting their artistic expertise across generations and are renowned for being among the most accomplished artisans in Asia. Ngor's abbots commissioned many outstanding thangka sets in the Newari 'Beri' style, characterized by its keen geometry, bold colors, and intricate scrollwork, well up until the lamdre lineage set under discussion was made c. 1600.

Ngor thangkas of this period are widely regarded as some of the finest examples of Tibetan Buddhist art. One of the key features is their exquisite level of technical skill. The artists who created these works were highly trained in the traditional Newari painting techniques, including the use of ground mineral pigments, gold leaf, and intricate scrollwork. Under the supervision of both talented workshop masters and clergy, the painters paid meticulous attention to every aspect of their compositions, from the clothing and adornments of the figures to the delicate patterns and designs around them. The result is a body of work with a consistent level of precision and detail, breathtaking in its complexity, vibrant color, and symbolism, that is perhaps unrivaled in Tibetan art.

The famous lamdre lineage series to which these two paintings belong represents the last-known major set of its type from Ngor in the Nepalese-inspired Beri style. The present pair of representative paintings prominently employ Nepalese decorative scrollwork and the late Beri palette, which features blues and greens. There is a marvelous choreography of color. The background of crisp scrolling vines enclosed by the gem-encrusted throne-back is an intense vermilion, sharply contrasting with the surrounding deep azurite blue behind it. Meanwhile, the scalloped edges of each mahasiddha's throne base show an awareness of contemporaneous Ming court furniture. Many consider this Ngor lamdre set to embody the late Beri style of Nepalese painting in Tibet par excellence. As Pal observes on the Damarupa:

"There is no break with the past... [The] style is still full of life and vigor and the technical virtuosity admirable. [Central] figures are made especially animated with their expressive faces and flowing scarves and garments. The artists have also used a rich palette of scintillating colours, while the details are rendered with extraordinary restraint and sensitivity. [These] paintings reveal the subtlety of drawing and the effortless delineation of intricate patterns that were the hallmarks of the [Beri] style and of its source - the Newari aesthetic." (Pal, Tibetan Paintings, 1984, p. 72.)

The set has been the subject of continuous study since its dispersal in the West in the 1960s. Approximately two-thirds of its thirty-some thangkas are published in some form. The frequent appearance of the 13th abbot of Ngor monastery, Namkha Palzang (1535-1602), as the last or penultimate master in many of the secondary lineages of each painting has led scholars to establish the dating of this set to during or shortly after his abbacy, i.e. 1569-1602 (see Jackson, Beri, p. 208; see Heller in Linrothe, p. 262 & 294-5 for diverging opinions). A compiled list of most of the known Ngor Lamdre thangkas (HAR set no. 385) can be found at www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setid=385.

They are held in some of the most prestigious public and private collections, including:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;
Rubin Museum of Art, New York;
Brooklyn Museum;
Los Angeles County Museum of Art;
Virginia Fine Arts Museum, Richmond;
Musée Guimet, Paris;
Rjiksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden;
Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich
Museum der Kulturen, Basel;
Tibet Museum, Alain Bordier Foundation, Gruyères
The Zimmerman Family Collection;
The Collection of Navin Kumar;
The Collection of Barbara and Walter Frey;
The Michael Henss Collection;
The Suresh Neotia Collection.

Three other paintings from the set, now in prominent private Chinese and American collections, sold recently at Sotheby's, New York, 20 March 2013, lots 237 & 238 and Bonhams, Hong Kong, 29 November 2016, lot 125.

Greatly outnumbered by monastic figures in this set (by 4 to about 30), mahasiddhas like Kanha and Damarupa are among the most visually engaging and narratively entertaining subjects in Tibetan art. Mastering Tantra as a means to enlightenment, mahasiddhas specialize in the deliberate transgression of social norms and ordinary states of awareness, confronting and transmuting the most powerful human fears and desires. In pushing the boundaries of conventional behavior, they also push the boundaries of the ordinary world. Their skilled practice not only grants them supreme enlightenment, but also miraculous powers used to convert wrong-minded rulers and disrupt the unenlightened status quo.

The Ngor lamdre lineage set was originally hung in a specific order, with the progression of masters expanding left and right centrifugally from the Primordial Buddha Vajradhara. (This is just as the secondary lineages appear in the top register of each painting.) As a sequential pairing of master and student, the fourth and fifth lamdre lineage holders, Kanha and Damarupa, would have appeared second on the viewer's right and left, respectively.

Each mahasiddha sits on almost the same, highly distinctive lotus pedestal with thin, upswept alternating red and blue petals, which are remarkable in their precision. No other master in the known portion of the set shares this pedestal. Underneath Kanha and Damarupa, the petals do differ in a small but significant way: the tips of the very central petals point in opposing directions, with the more dominant deep blue central petal under Kanha pointing towards the viewer's right, and Damarupa's pointing to the viewer's left. Knowing where these paintings appear in the prescribed lineage, we can discern that the artists ingeniously directed each petal's orientation toward the central Vajradhara, which would have had a matching azurite body. This observation unlocks a remarkable aspect in the design of this famous set that has up until now been obfuscated through its displacement. The sequential arrangement of the paintings, consisting of left and right pairs with matching lotus thrones, amounts to an inspired orchestration across more than thirty individual works, in what is perhaps the greatest expression of the highly regarded precision and honed execution of the Ngor lamdre lineage set, and the clearest evidence of the supervision of a great master. This finding provides further testament to why this set and its constituent paintings, such as the present Kanha and Damarupa, are regarded among the great masterpieces of Tibetan art.
 
The backs of both paintings are blessed with the same inscribed combination of consecration mantras, invocations, prayers, and pious verses as the other paintings in the Ngor lamdre lineage set of c. 1600. Behind every figure in each painting is a consecratory "om, ah, hum", symbolizing the presence of the Buddha's body, speech, and mind within the icon. Longer verses in the form of a stupa behind the central figure are punctuated by dharanis inviting the living presence of the Buddhas as well as the protector and wealth deities Panjaranatha Mahakala, Shri Devi, Chaturmukha Mahakala, Vaishravana, Jambhala, and Vasudhara. The longer verses stem from the Vinaya and the Buddhist creed. For more information about the various elements within these inscriptions and the source for the following translation of the longer verses by the Rubin Museum of Art, see https://rubinmuseum.org/collection/artwork/sanggye-sengge-1504-1569.

"Forbearing patience that bears hardships is the truest patience.
Passing beyond suffering [nirvana] is supreme, said the Buddha.
An ordained person who harms others
or brings harm upon others, is not practicing virtue.
Refrain from all misdeeds,
practice virtue perfectly,
discipline your own mind completely.
This is the Buddha's teaching.
The excellent vow of body,
the excellent vow of speech,
the excellent vow of mind:
Monks who keep at all times
all of the excellent vows
will be liberated from all suffering.

Of those phenomena produced from causes,
the Tathagata has proclaimed their causes and also their cessation.
Thus has spoken the great renunciant.

May it be auspicious!"