EASTERN TIBET, 19TH CENTURY

This painting of Amitayus, painted in a distinctly Eastern Tibetan style, depicts the deity of long-life at center, with vibrant crimson skin and supporting the amrita vase with both hands. He is backed by a green nimbus and multicolored aureole with a ring of lotus blossoms arcing behind him. The landscape, painted with a high horizon line and several mound-shaped mountains in the typical Kham manner, is filled with various deities and figures, including Ushnishavijaya and White Tara at either side of his throne, the bridge-maker Tangtong Gyalpo, bearded and holding a vase, just above the central figure, with Shakyamuni Buddha above him, and a Sakya lama at top left and Vajrayogini at top right; the rest of the composition is filled with emanations of Tara. A small, siddha-like figure seated on a deer is depicted within a cave towards the lower right corner.