TIBET, 18TH-19TH CENTURY

This present painting of the First Dalai Lama, Gedun Drupa (1391-1474) belongs to a thirteen painting set depicting the previous and later incarnations of the Dalai Lama. The set was first created during the eighteenth century under the commission of the Seventh Dalai Lama, Kalzang Gyatso (1708–1757). The original set or sets were later used as a model for woodcut carvings used to reproduce prints on cloth and paper, and it is likely that some of the woodcut prints were used as the under-drawing for paintings. A copy of the original set was likely gifted to the Qianlong Emperor during the visit of the Third Panchen Lama, Palden Yeshe (1738-1780).

Gendun Drupa was one of the chief disciples of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Gendun Drupa was instrumental in spreading the new Gelug tradition in Tsang. In his youth, he trained and studied in the great Kadam monastery of Nartang. When he was twenty-five, Gendun Drupa met Tsongkhapa and remained at his side in Ganden for about twelve years, becoming his chief disciple. Later in his life, Gendun Drupa founded the great Gelugpa monastic seat of Tashilhunpo in 1447 and was enthroned as the first abbot until his death in 1474. Over the course of his fifty years of teaching, he trained many Gelug, Kham, and even Sakya abbots. He was posthumously identified as the First Dalai Lama, a previous incarnation of the third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso. Following his death, Gendun Drupa was identified as an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, who is believed to be the source of the Dalai Lama incarnation lineage.

The painting is rendered in the New Menri style, popularized by the political and cultural sway of Lhasa. The New Menri style is associated with a certain Choying Gyatso of the Tsang Province, who was active in Tashilhunpo monastery and helped with the murals of Potala. In the present painting, Gendun Drupa is depicted with his face in a three-quarter view. Seated on a Chinese-style wood and lacquer throne, he places his right hand in the gesture of teaching while holding a begging bowl in his left hand. Tsongkhapa is seated at the top-left corner, in a similar three-quarter view. At the upper-right of the composition, Green Tara is seated above his home monastery of Tashilhunpo. Below Gedun Drupa, Inner Dharmaraja, the special protector for the Vajrabhairava cycle of Buddhist Tantra, stands in a wrathful posture surrounded by flames of primordial wisdom.

Compare the present lot with two other paintings of the same composition in the collection of The Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 34715 and with a painting in a private collection, illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 31240. Further compare the present work with a painting of Gendun Gyatso from a similar set from the David Drabkin Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 28 September 2022, lot 73.