Restoration of the Great Stupa at Svayambhunatha (Primary Title)
Paubha (Object Name)
Unknown (Artist)
This complex and historically important painting commemorates the renovation and re-consecration of the Great Stupa, or Buddhist reliquary mound, at Svayambhunatha. One of the Kathmandu Valley’s most prominent landmarks, this whitewashed, dome-shaped monument dominates the upper half of the composition. Both the painting and the inscription at its lower edge describe the restoration and consecration of the stupa’s elaborate finial in 1565 by donors from a Buddhist monastery in the nearby town of Patan. In addition to documenting this repair and the ritual performances that accompanied it, the painting also provides a schematic map of the Kathmandu Valley’s topographic and sacred landscape. Though it disregards conventional rules of perspective, this remarkable plan shows the valley’s principal towns, temples, shrines, roads, and rivers, orienting these features to the Great Stupa, the conceptual and ritual center of Nepalese Buddhism.
Robert A. and Ruth W. Fisher Fund
Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art, Asia Society Museum, New York, New York, March 16 – June 20, 2010.
The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, October 5, 2003 – January 11, 2004; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, February 6 – May 9, 2004.
Nepal: Where the Gods are Young, Asia House Gallery, New York, New York, fall of 1975; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, December 17, 1975 – January 25, 1976; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, February 17 – April 4, 1976.
The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, October 5, 2003 – January 11, 2004; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, February 6 – May 9, 2004.
Nepal: Where the Gods are Young, Asia House Gallery, New York, New York, fall of 1975; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, December 17, 1975 – January 25, 1976; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, February 17 – April 4, 1976.
August 1967, on display at the bahidyah bwayegu ceremony at the Yampi-vihara, Patan, Nepal; [1] By September 1967, Mary Shepherd Slusser [1918 – 2017]; [2] By 1985, Albert Peter Burleigh [1942 – ]; [3] purchased by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), accessioned into VMFA collection in May 2000. [4]
[1] See Mary Shepherd Slusser, "Conservation Notes on Some Nepalese Paintings," www.asianart.com, July 2003.
[2] Object corresponds to #441 in Slusser's accessions notebook, purchased from “Babu Kazi” in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal on September 30, 1967.
[3] Slusser writings indicate that she bought the painting on Burleigh’s behalf, and one might presume that the transfer to him happened soon after her acquisition. The earliest publication indicating his ownership, however, is from 1985. See Mary Shepherd Slusser, "Conservation Notes on Some Nepalese Paintings," www.asianart.com, July 2003, and Mary S. Slusser, "On a sixteenth-century Pictorial Pilgrims Guide from Nepal." Archives of Asian Art 33 (1985), pp. 6-36. Slusser’s writings refer to the painting’s restoration by conservator Yuji Abe, but it is not clear whether this work was performed in Japan or at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
[4] Accessioned May 18, 2000. Information in VMFA Curatorial and Registration files.
[1] See Mary Shepherd Slusser, "Conservation Notes on Some Nepalese Paintings," www.asianart.com, July 2003.
[2] Object corresponds to #441 in Slusser's accessions notebook, purchased from “Babu Kazi” in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal on September 30, 1967.
[3] Slusser writings indicate that she bought the painting on Burleigh’s behalf, and one might presume that the transfer to him happened soon after her acquisition. The earliest publication indicating his ownership, however, is from 1985. See Mary Shepherd Slusser, "Conservation Notes on Some Nepalese Paintings," www.asianart.com, July 2003, and Mary S. Slusser, "On a sixteenth-century Pictorial Pilgrims Guide from Nepal." Archives of Asian Art 33 (1985), pp. 6-36. Slusser’s writings refer to the painting’s restoration by conservator Yuji Abe, but it is not clear whether this work was performed in Japan or at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
[4] Accessioned May 18, 2000. Information in VMFA Curatorial and Registration files.
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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