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Wrathful offerings are an extremely rare subject for portable paintings but a common theme in the protector chapels of Tibetan monasteries. Such paintings communicate the horrors of life in an astonishingly humorous manner. At the top of this work are three offering bowls, the central one containing an offering of the five senses, each represented by its corresponding organ. The animals underneath—horses, yaks, sheep, and dogs—are the main domestic animals of the Tibetan Plateau, here shown in a hierarchy with the most valuable on top. The corpses at the bottom, and the human body parts between them, remind us that the scenery represented is a charnel ground.
Wrathful Offerings
OriginTibet
Date19th century
Dimensions36 × 25 in. (estimated)
MediumInk and pigment on silk damask
Classification(s)
Credit LineRubin Museum of Art
Object numberC2006.2.5
Himalayan Art Resources Number65900
DescriptionThis painting of wrathful offerings scattered in a charnel ground excels in its free execution, with outlines only partially filled with color. The silk background’s earthen color actually resembles the clay walls that would more often be used as a ground for this subject. A sense of perspective is found only in the lower section, where human parts are spread across the charnel ground. There is no notion of space, and relative proportions are upset by the large skulls in the upper portion of the painting.Wrathful offerings are an extremely rare subject for portable paintings but a common theme in the protector chapels of Tibetan monasteries. Such paintings communicate the horrors of life in an astonishingly humorous manner. At the top of this work are three offering bowls, the central one containing an offering of the five senses, each represented by its corresponding organ. The animals underneath—horses, yaks, sheep, and dogs—are the main domestic animals of the Tibetan Plateau, here shown in a hierarchy with the most valuable on top. The corpses at the bottom, and the human body parts between them, remind us that the scenery represented is a charnel ground.
Not on view
19th century
late 18th – early 19th century
18th century
18th-19th century
18th century
18th century
18th - 19th century
18th or 19th century
19th century
late 18th - 19th century
mid-19th century