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alb3601717

Offerings to Wrathful Deities

Offerings to Wrathful Deities. Culture: Tibet. Dimensions: 66 15/16 x 43 11/16 in. (170 x 111 cm). Date: late 16th-17th century. This black-ground (Tibetan: nag thang) painting was installed in the chapel (gonkhang) dedicated to the wrathful protective deities (dharmapalas), a room reserved for tantric initiation rites within a Tibetan monastery. The exceptional scale and complexity of the composition relate the painting to the offering-scene murals known as "sets of ornaments" (Tibetan: rgyan tshogs) that adorn the interiors of shrines dedicated to the dharmapalas. Two wrathful tantric deities are represented with flames emanating from their beings, standing on a male corpse atop a lotus pedestal. They are draped in flayed skins and garlands of severed human heads. Offerings of flayed skins, ritual utensils and objects, and a vast assortment of weapons fill the interior. Framing the scene above is a curtain of flayed human skins and organ entrails.
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Title:
Offerings to Wrathful Deities
Caption:
Offerings to Wrathful Deities. Culture: Tibet. Dimensions: 66 15/16 x 43 11/16 in. (170 x 111 cm). Date: late 16th-17th century. This black-ground (Tibetan: nag thang) painting was installed in the chapel (gonkhang) dedicated to the wrathful protective deities (dharmapalas), a room reserved for tantric initiation rites within a Tibetan monastery. The exceptional scale and complexity of the composition relate the painting to the offering-scene murals known as "sets of ornaments" (Tibetan: rgyan tshogs) that adorn the interiors of shrines dedicated to the dharmapalas. Two wrathful tantric deities are represented with flames emanating from their beings, standing on a male corpse atop a lotus pedestal. They are draped in flayed skins and garlands of severed human heads. Offerings of flayed skins, ritual utensils and objects, and a vast assortment of weapons fill the interior. Framing the scene above is a curtain of flayed human skins and organ entrails.
Technique/material:
Distemper and ink on cloth
Museum:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Credit:
Album / Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Releases:
Model: No - Property: No
Rights questions?
Image size:
2805 x 4400 px | 35.3 MB
Print size:
23.7 x 37.3 cm | 9.3 x 14.7 in (300 dpi)
Keywords: