Padmasambhava
Framed: 62 × 44 inches (157.48 × 111.76 cm)
Teachers of Enlightenment: Traditions in Tibetan Buddhism, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 11, 2019–May 10, 2020, no cat.
The revered teacher Padmasambhava, holding ritual implements in his hands, dominates the composition of this painting. At the bottom center of the painting may be Pehar, a protective deity whom Padmasambhava appointed as the guardian of Samye Monastery, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet.
The artist who produced this painting may have been influenced by Chinese-style figure and landscape painting. In fact, the artist may have been from China. The painting’s provenance further suggests Chinese origins as Laurence Sickman, the first Asian art curator at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, purchased this painting in Beijing in 1933.
Laurence Sickman (1907-88), Kansas City, MO, by 1987;
Bequeathed by Sickman to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1988.
No published references known at this time.
