TIBET, 17TH-18TH CENTURY

The present painting depicts the deity, Maha Vairochana, as he appears according to the Sarvadurgati Parishodhana Tantra. It is possible this painting was once part of a set of three that depicted the full retinue of the Thirty-Seven Deity Mandala of all the Families of Great Vairochana, but arranged schematically instead of in mandala-form. Compare the present painting with a seventeenth-century Tibetan painting of the Sarvavid Maha Vairochana mandala in the Lostand Foundation, published on Himalayan Art Resources (item no. 90402); while the Lostand Foundation example is arranged in a typical mandala fashion, both works demonstrate similar treatments of the deities, landscape, and overall color palette.