Detail: face
The very unusual format of this painting, much wider than it is high, and its relatively small size could suggest its original use as part of a book. It is not unusual to find precious silk inside some of the best Tibetan manuscripts. One or more layers of silk, stitched to the top of the page, often protect the illuminated pages. This silk, which can be very brightly dyed and patterned, is almost never painted and the fact that stitching holes can be observed both at the top and bottom ends of the present painting, excludes that it has been used as one of those protective covers. The background colour, a rich indigo blue, however, leaves open the possibility that the painting has been used as the main decoration for a page of a blue paper manuscript. The identity of the main goddess represented, a four-headed and eight-armed form of Mahapratisara, one of the Pancharaksas, makes this hypothesis even more likely. The Panchraksas are five goddesses representing five magic spells (dharani), which protect from sin, from demons, from snakes, from illness and from wild animals and insects. Pancharaksa manuscripts are quite common both in Tibet and in Nepal.
Mahapratisara is seated on an open lotus under an arch formed by the tails of two makaras perched on pillars. To her left and right four more goddesses on each side are represented, the eight goddesses of the outer circle of the Pancharaksa mandala. Branches with flowers divide their assembly into vertical registers.
From a technical point of view, this painting is a classical early example of black painting. The figures are delineated in a line drawing in gold pigment on the dark surface of the silk using only a brush. Stylistically, the makara arch, the patterned garments that cling tightly to the bodies, and the flowers point to the Newari style adopted in Tibet in the fourteenth century under Yuan patronage.
Detail: left of painting
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