id: 152331 accession number: 1985.191.a share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.191.a updated: 2023-01-11 05:56:39.152000 Iconographic Drawings: Vaishravana, Yama, Ushnishavijaya, Chunda (?), and Buddha (recto), c. 1500. Tibet. Ink and watercolor on cotton; overall: 20.3 x 12.7 cm (8 x 5 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Delia E. Holden Fund 1985.191.a title: Iconographic Drawings: Vaishravana, Yama, Ushnishavijaya, Chunda (?), and Buddha (recto) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1500 creation date earliest: 1495 creation date latest: 1505 current location: creditline: Delia E. Holden Fund copyright: --- culture: Tibet technique: ink and watercolor on cotton department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art collection: Tibetan Art type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 20.3 x 12.7 cm (8 x 5 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Himalayan Gallery 237 Rotation opening date: 2021-03-12T05:00:00 Himalayan Gallery 237 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 12-August 29, 2021). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (Spink & Son, Ltd., London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?-1985 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1985- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The script notations are in an Indic script, but the line drawings are Tibetan. digital description: wall description: Tibetan thangka painters referred to sketchbooks with drawings that delineate the iconographies—appearance and identifying attributes—of Buddhist figures. These visual guides were heavily used; very few survive. This rare example shows signs of wear, but the steady line drawings are the work of a master.

The largest figure on the left is the guardian king of the north, Vaishravana, god of wealth, and the small figure to the right appears to be a donor in Tibetan dress. The next page to the right has Yama, the guardian king of the south, and the god of death in union with his consort on his buffalo mount. Below them is a goddess of longevity, Ushnishavijaya. At the far right is an 18-armed goddess seated in a skull cup on serpents, below which is a seated Buddha. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1985.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 73, no. 2, 1986, pp. 26–71. page number: Mentioned: no. 204, p. 71 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159930 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1985.191.a/1985.191.a_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1985.191.a/1985.191.a_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1985.191.a/1985.191.a_full.tif